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CLASSICAL 



DISQUISITIONS 



AND 



CURIOSITIES, 



CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL. 



BY 



BENJAMIN HEATH MALKIN, LL.D. & F. S. A, 

HEAD MASTER OF BURY SCHOOL. 



LONDON: 

PRINTED FOR 

LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN, 

PATERNOSTER-ROW. 

1825. 



«$ 



London: 

Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode, 

New- Street- Square . 



TO 






MY FORMER PUPILS. 



I inscribe the following pages to you, in the hope 
that they will remind you of times, persons, and 
places, not devoid of interest in your estimation. 
Various are the topics, direct and collateral, which 
have been the subject of enquiry and discussion 
between us, arising out of our classical reading. 
I perhaps have not overrated the measure of your 
respect and favourable opinion, in supposing that 
an attempt on my part to continue our literary in- 
tercourse will not be unacceptable to you. On 
this presumption, I have devoted my intervals of 
leisure for the last six months, to the collection 
and examination of many passages, of more or less 
ordinary occurrence, with a view to illustrate the 
bearings of ancient upon modern taste, literature, 
and opinions, and to encourage you to a more va- 
ried and extensive acquaintance with Latin and 
Greek authors, than falls within the compass of 
school instruction or public lectures. That this 
collection consists of articles, neither connected in 
subject nor of consecutive arrangement, is at once 
explained, and I trust justified, by the consider- 
ation that none but leisure hours could with pro- 

A3 



IV DEDICATION. 

priety be devoted to their production. Had the 
work aspired to the dignity of a regular treatise on 
any given subject, Horace's term of gestation would 
not have been too long for its final dev elopement: 
but in detached essays, of more humble preten- 
sion, where the mind of the writer shifts rapidly 
from theme to theme, there seems to be little 
gained by the anxieties of minute revision, or the 
hesitation necessary to more important lucubra- 
tions. In the papers now submitted to you* light 
and serious topics are alternately treated ; such as 
they are, with all their imperfections, they are the 
result of that miscellaneous reading, which forms 
the occupation and amusement of my privacy, in 
furtherance of my public teaching. 

But you will expect me to address you in the 
language of apology, not only for the deficiencies 
of the present attempt, but for the undue execu- 
tion of an important trust, if you believe what you 
have of late been frequently told. It seems to be 
the fashionable doctrine among the philosophers, 
that the system of our public schools does not keep 
pace with the advancement of the age ; and that 
its victims are thrown upon the world, without 
any preparation for its serious business, without 
any clue to those paths in which they are indivi- 
dually to walk. 

Before I attempt to repel this charge, I must 
observe generally, that in these days of free dis- 
cussion, the lust of innovation keeps pace with the 
spirit of improvement. Ancient systems and es- 
tablished practice are convenient foils to the novel 



DEDICATION. V 

conceptions and bold theories of speculative men. 
Projects of education run a race with steam-en- 
gines and rail-roads. Schools and universities are 
voted to be slow coaches : and then comes forward 
a prospectus, undertaking to teach all the professor 
knows of Latin and Greek in a month ; to give a 
bird's-eye view of the whole circle of sciences in a 
year; and to fortify the youthful mind. agaUw^jj 
the temptations of the world in a course of twelve 
lectures. 

The sentiments of Locke and Milton, on the 
subject of education, are before the world, and 
have been examined in every point of view. But 
old Burton, " Democritus Junior/' the Anatomist 
of Melancholy, has the following passage in his 
quaint style : — " But and if Very Truth be ex- 
tant indeede on earth, as some hold she it is which 
actuates men's deeds, purposes, ye may in vaine 
look for her in the learned universities, halls, col- 
leges. Truth is no Doctoresse, she taketh no de- 
grees at Paris or Oxford, amongst great clerks, 
disputants, subtile Aristotles, men nodosi ingenii, 
able to take Lully by the chin, but oftentimes to such 
an one as myself, an Idiota, or common person, 
no great things, melancholizing in woods where 
waters are, quiet places by rivers, fountains, whereas 
the silly man expecting no such matter, thinketh 
only how best to delectate and refresh his mynde 
continually with Natura her pleasaunt scenes, 
woods, water-falls, or Art her statelie gardens, 
parks, terraces, Belvideres, on a sudden the god- 
desse herself Truth has appeared, with a shyning 

a 4 



VI DEDICATION. 

lyghte, and a sparkling countenance, so as yee 
may not be able lightly to resist her*" Now we 
humbly maintain, that Truth is not only a God- 
desse, but a Doctoresse : that she may be looked 
for in universities, halls, and colleges ; and we fur- 
ther venture to hope, in those public schools which 
prepare the student for his probation in the higher 
stag-pc of academical discipline. 

The first charge against us is, that we devote 
too large a portion of irrevocable time to the at- 
tainment of one object, namely classical learning. 
Here a question arises, whether classical learning 
be really one object, or whether it do not rather 
embrace a circle of important objects. It seems to 
me to furnish a supply of various and gradually 
accumulating knowledge, suggested to the scholar 
incidentally, through the medium of languages to 
be learned, with more interest and effect than 
would be produced by the formality of systematic 
lectures, and at a more early period than any at 
which the mind would be strong enough to en- 
counter the severity of strict philosophical discus- 
sion. Did my limits admit of examining the sub- 
ject in all its bearings, I might enlarge on the 
consideration, that he who knows only modern 
languages, knows no language at all. But the 
prejudice of the moment seems all for science. Cer- 
tain philosophers would teach the young idea how to 
shoot with the cross-bow of geology : but we can 
herein convict them of belying their own preten- 
sions to method, and jumping in medias res, when 
they would start their little geologues in the 



DEDICATION. Vll 

career of knowledge from hie lapis, a stone. We 
on the contrary adhere to the principle, so often 
and so learnedly inculcated by the first Lord 
Kenyon, whose legal knowledge was unbounded, 
and whose fondly displayed power of quotation, now 
and then overleaped the enclosures of the Latin 
syntax, stare super antiquas vias. On this sound 
constitutional principle, so fit to be adopted by 
the professors of learning, we set out from haec 
musa, a song. But then this singing propensity of 
ours is alleged as one of our principal criu»p S# \y e 
are accused of making poets, whereas they ougii^f 
be born. Now assuredly we are not so absurd as to 
suppose, either that we can, or that the gods will, 
make our pupils poetical. It is supposed that we 
confine our efforts to fostering an annual poet or 
two, for the purpose of supporting our own repu- 
tation in the universities. But we are not so am- 
bitious as to aim at usurping the prerogative of 
royalty : nay, the king himself, who can do no evil, 
can do no more good than to make a laureate : in 
which capacity Cibber and Pye chaunted, and 
Southey is silent. It is said that we teach an art, 
which not one in iive hundred of our pupils will 
ever practise in after life. That is highly probable, 
and by no means to be regretted, if there be any 
truth in a Spanish proverb, that " He w r ho cannot 
make one verse is a blockhead ; he who makes 
more is a fool. 5 ' I have relieved you from the first 
of these imputations, and I warn you against in- 
curring the second. But should the muse be so 
spiteful as to inspire you, send not the effusions to 



VJ11 DEDICATION. 

me, since I can assure you, that to a schoolmaster, 
sufficient unto the day is the authorship thereof. 
Teaching composition, like other great crimes, car- 
ries its punishment along with it. Why then do 
we teach composition in Latin and Greek, and 
particularly verse? It is to make critics, not 
poets. It is to ensnare our pupils into a more ex- 
tensive, and a more curious examination of the 
oreat writers, than the public tuition of a mixed 
body would allow. The practice of classical com- 
position * a verse and prose compels a composer of 
anv calent or ambition to pull to pieces the whole 
phraseology of the principal authors for his own 
use, and carefully to examine their thoughts for 
the purposes of adaptation. Thus an acquaintance 
is formed with their contents, and an insight 
gained into their spirit, not to be acquired by 
mere mechanical construction in a lesson, or by 
yawning over the notes of Delphin or Variorum 
commentators. 

We are further accused, not only of making an 
annual poet, but of making an annual scholar ; of 
cultivating highly soils of abundant promise, and 
suffering the light lands to lie fallow. This 
vain or mercenary conduct I indignantly disclaim 
for myself. A long experience of the public 
school system, and an extensive acquaintance 
among its conductors, enable me to disclaim it 
in behalf of my brethren. I feel convinced that 
there is no set of gentlemen at the head of 
any public school in the kingdom, so mean, so 
unworthy of the name, as to betray their vice- 



DEDICATION. IX 

parental trust, and to consign those pupils to igno- 
rance, who are not blessed with brilliant talents. 
The frequently recurring failure of laborious and 
painful efforts is sufficiently mortifying, without 
being imputed as a fault ; but who can escape 
censure, if the apathy of sluggish minds, or the 
impracticability of dull parts, is to be fixed on the 
instructors as arising from a dereliction of their 
duty ? There will always be a grenadier company 
in academical as well as in military bodies. It is to 
be feared there will also be an awkward squad : but 
we find that we can drill those prevailing numbers, 
who just come up to the regimental standard, into 
useful fighting men. 

That our course of instruction is so completely 
unprofessional, is with me a merit, rather than a 
defect. We teach the general principles of reli- 
gion ; but we leave it to the universities to form 
the divine : we leave it to the bar to form its own 
lawyers : but we endeavour to lay that solid found- 
ation, on which a superstructure of any order 
may be raised. A strong objection against edu- 
cating with professional views too early, is, that 
all professional education, not to speak invidiously, 
has an eye to pecuniary interest, and the politic 
arts of pushing forward in life. There is no fear 
that these objects will not occupy the mind soon 
enough : and it is highly desirable that it should 
previously be furnished with sentiments of inde- 
pendence, with a taste for the liberal arts, with 
that common stock for the intercourse of polite 
society, which distinguish the gentleman from the 



DEDICATION. 



recluse, the pedant, or the plodder. But the truth 
is, that besides this advantage, classical education 
does make preparation for the peculiar duties and 
pursuits of after life, though not exclusively or 
engrossingly : in addition to which, it furnishes at 
the time, and continues to furnish through life, 
something valuable in itself to all those who pos- 
sess it, independently of its subserviency to their 
more necessary pursuits, and independently of the 
mental discipline incident to its acquirement. 

My station in life may be supposed to give a 
bias to my opinions and reasonings on this subject. 
I will therefore appeal to the testimony of the 
great Lord Chatham, as simply and beautifully 
delivered in those letters to his nephew, Lord 
Camelford, for the possession of which we are 
indebted to Lord Grenville : — " I rejoice to hear 
that you have begun Homer's Iliad, and have 
made so great a progress in Virgil. I hope you 
taste and love those authors particularly. You 
cannot read them too much ; they are not only 
the two greatest poets, but they contain the finest 
lessons for your age to imbibe j lessons of honour, 
courage, disinterestedness, love of truth, command 
of temper, gentleness of behaviour, humanity, and 
in one word, virtue in its true signification. Go 
on, my dear nephew, and drink as deep as you 
can of those divine springs : the pleasure of the 
draught is equal at least to the prodigious ad- 
vantage of it to the heart and morals. I hope 
you will drink them as somebody does in Virgil, 



DEDICATION. XL 

of another sort of cup : Ilk impiger hausit spu- 
mantem pater am" 

Lord Chatham, it should seem, did not hold the 
opinion expressed by a German writer, who says 
that he would as soon insist on seeing a boy with a 
brandy bottle, as a book, continually in his hands. 
In a subsequent passage, the great statesman who 
so gracefully and benevolently descends into the 
office of a private tutor, advises his pupil to con- 
sider the poets, however delightful, as subordinate 
objects of his attention : — 

" I beg a copy of your elegy on your mother's 
picture : it is such admirable poetry, that I beg 
you to plunge deep into prose and severer studies, 
and not indulge your genius for verse, for the 
present. Finitimus or at or i poeta. Substitute Tully 
and Demosthenes in the place of Homer and 
Virgil ; and arm yourself with all the variety of 
manner, copiousness and beauty of diction, no- 
bleness and magnificence of ideas, of the Roman 
consul ; and render the powers of eloquence com- 
plete, by the irresistible torrent of vehement argu- 
mentation, the close and forcible reasoning, and 
the depth and fortitude of mind of the Grecian 
statesman." 

If what has been said be sufficient to justify the 
choice of our studies, the next question is, whether 
we "pursue them wisely and successfully. It will 
scarcely be contended, that with the advantage of 
the emulation we have the means of exciting, we 
are likely to be less qualified teachers of the 
learned languages, than those who devote their 



XII DEDICATION. 

talents to more confined numbers or individual 
objects of their attention. The charge to which 
we must plead guilty is, taking a longer time about 
it. Perhaps, however, we lay up a larger stock of 
materials in the course of our teaching, than those 
who make a merit of communicating the mere 
languages in a shorter time than ourselves. In 
fact, I positively deny that the seven or eight 
years passed at a public school are devoted to the 
acquisition of two languages. Simple construction 
is merely mechanical ; and lectures produce little 
of lasting impression even on adult minds. We 
endeavour, in our upper classes, to unite the in- 
terest of lectures with the discipline of examination. 
Those youths who make full use of the oppor- 
tunities offered them in public instruction, and 
that more extensive course of private reading, in 
which it is our habit to engage boys of ardent 
mind and considerable power, acquire with the 
languages, the heart and soul of the authors : the 
facts contained in their histories, their principles of 
public conduct, their private morals, the civil and 
military constitutions of their countries, with their 
resemblances and discrepancies in reference to our 
own : the most approved rules of taste in poetry 
and the fine arts, and their effects upon modern 
literature. I should think but meanly of that 
teacher, who could read Homer with his class, and 
not occasionally talk to them about Milton. With 
as little favour should I regard the intellectual 
energy of him, who could read page after page of 
Cicero with his pupils, without comparing the 



DEDICATION. X1U 

Roman Forum with the practice of the English 
Bar, and the province of our juries with the office 
of their judices ; without looking at the senatus 
populusque Romanus, with reference to the con- 
stitutional functions of the British Parliament : who 
could read the two great orators of antiquity 
without associating the name of Cicero with that 
of Pitt, and the name of Demosthenes with that 
of Fox. Still less could I apologise for the neglect 
or apathy of that instructor, who should pass by 
any occasion which either the best or the worst 
philosophy and morals of the ancients may happen 
to furnish, of impressing on the minds of his 
hearers the superiority of the wisdom from above, 
to any thing that the wit of man has ever yet 
devised ; of pointing out how abhorrent from 
Christian principles are their worst doctrines, how 
greatly inferior the noblest conjectures of their 
most highly favoured minds. With respect to the 
mode in which religious convictions are most 
successfully impressed, I feel convinced from the 
habitual practice of both methods, that the evi- 
dences of Christianity, those at least which are 
collateral, are more favourably received when 
thrown in incidentally, when they strike with a 
surprise, or steal upon the mind, than when they 
are ushered in with the formality of prepared lec- 
tures. All those who are extensively conversant 
with young minds and feelings must know, that 
what is necessarily very serious, is presupposed to 
be very dull, and consequently heard with listless- 
ness, or perhaps even with disgust. The only 



XIV DEDICATION. 

painful part of a public teacher's office, is the 
constant effort required, to cheat his pupils into 
attention : and he who will not introduce consi- 
derable variety of topics, who is too pompous to 
be entertaining, and too full of his own dignity to 
throw an occasional air of vivacity over subjects 
grave in their general tenor, will be heard with 
obtuse ears, charm he never so wisely. 

It has been the fashion of late years, especially 
with that class of persons who compliment them- 
selves with the epithet of serious-minded, and 
endow their own confined party with the title of 
the religious public, to insinuate that the habits 
of large schools are somewhat whimsical in point of 
morality. Now it is unavoidable that where con- 
siderable numbers are congregated, and a certain 
portion of liberty is allowed, irregularities and 
abuses should occasionally arise : but it does not 
therefore follow, that the accumulation of numbers, 
or that certain extent of liberty, miist on the 
average be an evil. To argue the point, would lead 
me too far : but I am a decided enemy to keeping 
boys in perpetual leading-strings. At the same 
time, where there is option, there will sometimes be 
a wrong choice. The painful part to a master's 
feelings is the necessity of setting up scarecrows : 
a necessity which falls with more severity on the 
grieved and disappointed parent, than on the worth- 
less son. But I have never known an instance 
within my own experience, in which the scarecrow 
has failed to perform his office. On whatever 
occasion any question of discipline or morals has 



DEDICATION. XV 

arisen here, a very large majority has always taken 
the right side ; has always acted rightly, and what 
is even of more importance, has thought and felt 
rightly. As a set-off against the superior vigilance, 
or rather the more unrelenting superintendence, of 
private or domestic education, I allege the system 
of moral discipline, and the habit of moral feeling, 
always subsisting among you independently of me : 
a system and habits which put a stern negative on 
every thing like meanness or shuffling ; which hold 
the character of a gentleman to be of the very 
first necessity. In no instance have I ever known 
ungentlemanly or immoral conduct cheered by any 
individual not personally implicated. I have the 
pleasure to find that you, my friends, support in 
after life the character you have borne during your 
residence under my roof ; nor need I, when I hear 
how respectfully you are spoken of in the Uni- 
versity of Cambridge, where you are so numerous, 
entertain any fears for you, on a comparison with 
that description of young persons, nursed in sup- 
posed innocence and security, among the pet 
animals of a lady's drawing-room : a hat-box con- 
taining kittens on one side of the fireplace ; a 
large band-box containing the heir apparent on 
the other. 

On looking back to what I have written, I con- 
ceive it not impossible that some persons may 
consider it as the quip modest in favour of my 
own individual establishment : but this would not 
be a candid construction of my feelings or inten- 

a 



XVI DEDICATION. 

tions. If the Cambridge triposes warrant me in 
considering myself as in any degree a successful 
teacher, I unfeignedly attribute that success, not 
to my talents, but to my breeding. That, as most 
of you know, took place at Harrow : there I learned 
my art, and on the model there furnished have I 
practised it. The late Dr. Benjamin Heath was 
the master of that school during all my earlier 
time. That excellent person was held in the 
highest veneration by his pupils, and was not only 
as good a master, but as good a man as ever lived. 
In him, firmness, which was neither shaken by 
difficulties nor exasperated by opposition, unques- 
tioned impartiality, and a system of discipline 
founded on moral propriety and practical good 
sense, were the features of his public ministry. An 
opinion then very generally prevailing, that young 
persons were to be kept in a state of awe, gave an 
appearance of sternness to his outward deport- 
ment ; but it went no deeper than the features and 
the wig. All the rest was candour, benevolence, 
and zeal for the interests of his pupils. 

Like the general run of immaculate men, he 
judged the frailties of others with a lenity which 
sinners never exercise ; and smiled in private at 
those venial errors which shook down a tempest of 
powder with the thunders of official denunciation. 

My school education was finished under his 
successor, Dr. Drury ; to whose strenuous en- 
couragement and friendly advice I feel deeply 
indebted : of him I should say more, were it not 
that the praise of the living is too often considered 



DEDICATION; XV11 

as flattery. He has long since retired ; but the 
name still flourishes. For myself I cannot but 
hope that the labours of sixteen years have given 
me some ground of my own to stand upon ; but I 
have no doubt that the circumstance of my bearing 
the name of my venerable relative occasioned my 
earlier services to be received with partiality. On 
the nearly identified regulations of Harrow and Eton 
I formed my system, not as a servile copyist, but 
as a free and faithful follower. But while I adopted 
their course of study and modes of management, 
I have from time to time introduced such devi- 
ations, as difference of local circumstances, and the 
facilities of a less extensive concern induced me in 
the exercise of an independent judgment to ap- 
prove. But in my changes and additions, as well 
as in my adoptions, I have endeavoured to adhere 
to the spirit when departing from the letter. 

The list of Harrow worthies, in all departments, 
ecclesiastical, civil, and military, did my limits allow 
of its transcription, would furnish a triumphant 
evidence of practical utility. Among the earlier 
names are those of Baxter the philologist and an- 
tiquary, and the critic Dennis, more celebrated 
than well esteemed. 

Bruce the Abyssinian traveller, Orme the his- 
torian of Hindostan, and Hamilton the author of 
^Egyptiaca, form no mean triumvirate in an inter- 
esting department of literature. Sir William Jones 
was the Crichton of his age. In the naval and 
military department, we have the names of Lord 
Rodney, Lord Hastings, and Colonel Ponsonby, 

a2 



XV1U DEDICATION. 

whose noble career was prematurely terminated in 
the field of Waterloo. Of official statesmen our 
harvest is abundant : Lord Weilesley began at Har- 
row, and finished at Eton ; to whom add, the late 
Spencer Percival, Mr. Robinson the present Chan- 
cellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Peel the present Se- 
cretary of State for the Home Department, the 
Duke of Manchester, Lord Westmoreland, Lord 
Palmerston, and Lord Harrowby. * The labourers 
in the unproductive field of opposition are also not 
a few : independently of names which shall be re- 
served to grace other than the political department, 
there are those of the Duke of Grafton, Lord 
Euston, Lord Althorpe, the Duke of Hamilton, 
the Marquis of Douglas, Lord Archibald Hamil- 
ton, Lord Dun cannon, Lord Grosvenor, and 
many others of later standing. To Richard 
Brinsley Sheridan that happened which never hap- 
pened to any other man : on the same evening he 
was in three places at once ; he was entertaining 
crowded audiences with his School for Scandal, 
and Duenna, at the two theatres, and making one 
of his most brilliant displays of eloquence in the 
House of Commons. Among those of the nobility 
honourably distinguished for classical pursuits and 
acquirements, may be mentioned the late Earl of 
Denbigh, the present Earl Spencer, and the Earl 
of Hardwicke w T ho edited the collection called 
" Athenian Letters." In another department of 
literary pursuit we have the Earl of Aberdeen, the 

* All but Lord Weilesley are exclusively Harrovians. 



DEDICATION. XIX 

president of the Antiquarian Society ; Mr. Taylor 
Combe, secretary to the Royal, director of the 
Antiquarian Society, and keeper of the antiquities 
and coins in the British Museum. The Duke of 
Devonshire is among the most distinguished col- 
lectors of books, and works in the fine arts, in this 
collecting country. The Earl of Elgin brought 
into England (we need not enter into controversy) 
the finest specimens of Grecian sculpture existing. 
Among lawyers, we have Mr. East, the celebrated 
reporter, and a name which cannot be mentioned 
without deep regret. The failure of Sir John 
Richardson's health, and his unavoidable retire- 
ment, have grievously disappointed his profession 
and his country. His promotion was entirely ow- 
ing to his great talents and unspotted virtues. 
The acuteness of his conception, the clearness of 
his understanding, and the soundness of his legal 
principles, led the public to look forward to the 
most substantial benefits from his judicial services : 
and though the profession of the law is too well 
stocked with talents and integrity to allow the 
secession of any individual to be irretrievable, it is 
a national loss that the interpretation and applica- 
tion of the laws should have devolved for so short 
a time on such a man. 

This catalogue might be extended to many more 
pages ; but such extension would be out of place. 
I will close it with two names, which will only 
perish, the one with the records of classical learn- 
ing, the other with English poetry, in the very 
highest ranks of which his works will stand to the 

SI o 



XX DEDICATION. 

last, when personal malignity, always pursuing the 
obliquities of superior genius, shall have expended 
its stock of exaggerated imputation. You will 
anticipate the names of Dr. Parr and Lord Byron. 
The zeal with which I have defended our public 
establishments should not subject me to the suspi- 
cion of looking with a hostile or jealous eye on the 
extensive projects of education now afloat. To the 
unlimited diffusion of knowledge, whether through 
the channel of philosophical institutions for me- 
chanics, or the erection of a university in London, 
I wish success, and predict it from the growing 
spirit of the age. It is to be hoped that soon there 
will not be a totally uneducated person in this 
country. The effect of this, so far from being a 
reasonable subject of alarm, would be as advanta- 
geous to the higher as to the lower classes of so- 
ciety. There ought to be no danger, lest the 
peasant should tread on the heels of the courtier. 
The education which the working population of a 
country can possibly receive, must always be li- 
mited by their circumstances. The nature of those 
circumstances will always prevent it from being 
educated up to the higher ranks. Their know- 
ledge must be of a practical, money-getting order. 
When once they advance beyond mere rudiments, 
the ornamental must always be left for the more 
fortunate. Give them all the education they can 
possibly receive, no evil consequences can result 
from its extension. The only danger that could 
arise, would be in the very improbable case of the 
gentleman's education being lowered to their stand- 



DEDICATION. XXI 

arch But even in the equally improbable case of 
the general standard being so raised, that their 
average knowledge should equal or surpass that of 
gentlemen now, it would still be our own fault i 
they were educated up to the education of gentle- 
men then. With the start which the constitution 
of society has given us, a constitution undergoing 
a modification, but not a subversion, from the pe- 
culiar spirit of the times, with the means of select- 
ing the most valuable assistance, with a large por- 
tion of leisure, and a comparative exemption from 
the anxieties arising out of hazardous subsistence, 
we should deserve little compassion if we suffered 
the energies of poverty to rival or overmaster the 
indolence of advantageous position. Should the 
cultivation of the popular mind rise above the 
most cowardly anticipations of those who see more 
danger in improvement than in deterioration, no 
harm would really be done, but on the contrary 
much good : for unless in the improbable and dis- 
graceful alternative of the higher classes dege- 
nerating in proportion to the improvement of the 
lower, the education of the poor could scarcely 
be extended without forcing the rich also to ex- 
tend theirs. But the education of the common 
people cannot be so extended as to engender any 
prejudicial confusion, provided the education of 
the higher classes, however it may become ne- 
cessary to enlarge its range, continue to be, as it 
now is, mainly directed to what we are in the 
habit of distinguishing by the title of polite litera- 
ture or elegant attainment. The superior advan- 



XX11 DEDICATION. ' 

tage of competition above monopoly is not more 
obvious in the principles of political economy and 
their application to the commercial system, than 
it is likely to be in the market of philosophy and 
letters, when it shall be open to the purchasers of 
every country, occupation, and degree. 

But I have pursued these subjects beyond the 
modern limits of a dedicatory address. I cannot 
conclude without expressing much pleasure in the 
conviction, that after all, I have ushered a much 
larger proportion of good than of evil into the 
world, bad as it is represented to be. I can wish 
nothing better for the generality of you, than 
that you may act by society at large with as much 
good faith and correct feeling as you have mani- 
fested in your transactions with me. I will close 
this long epistle with a few words of advice, tran- 
scribed from those letters of Lord Chatham, to 
some passages in which I have already called your 
attention : — " You have the true clue to guide you, 
in the maxim that the use of learning is, to render 
a man more wise and virtuous, not merely to make 
him more learned. Made tua virtute ; go on by 
this golden rule, and you cannot fail to become 
every thing your generous heart prompts you to 
wish to be, and that mine most affectionately 
wishes for you. There is but one danger in your 
way, and that is, perhaps, natural enough to your 
age, the love of pleasure, or the fear of close appli- 
cation and laborious diligence. With the last 
there is nothing that you may not conquer ; and 
the first is sure to conquer and enslave whoever 



DEDICATION. XX111 

does not strenuously and generously resist the first 
allurements of it, lest, by small indulgences, he 
fall under the yoke of irresistible habit. Vitanda 
est improba Siren, Desidia, I desire may be affixed 
to the curtains of your bed, and to the walls of 
your chambers. If you do not rise early, you ne- 
ver can make any progress worth talking of: if 
you do not set apart your hours of reading, and 
never suffer yourself or any one else to break in 
upon them, your days will slip through your hands 
unprofitably and frivolously ; unpraised by all you 
wish to please, and really unenjoyable to yourself. 
Be assured, whatever you take from pleasure, 
amusements, or indolence, for these first few years 
of your life, will repay you a hundred fold in the 
pleasures, honours, and advantages of all the re- 
mainder of your days." 

I will not overlay the simplicity, or weaken the 
force of this wise advice from a wise man, by add- 
ing any thing from myself, beyond the assurance 
of my being 

Your faithful and affectionate friend, 

BENJ. H. MALKIN. 

Bury, May 25. 1825. 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

Comparative Estimate of Terence and Plautus 1 

On the Epicurean Philosophy 26 

On the Aristotelian Philosophy , 52 

Character of Timon the Misanthrope 63 

Character of Apemantus 81 

Character of Alcibiades 84 

On Callimachus 113 

On Horace 125 

On the Characters of Titus and Berenice.... ]57 

On Caesar's Commentaries 179 

On the History of Josephus. — On Herod, Mariamne, 

and Herod the Tetrarch 187 

On the Character of Mucius Scaevola 242 

On Cicero 248 

On Seneca 285 

On Ausonius 304 

On the Character of Cinna 317 

On the Titles and Mythological Character of Mercury 324 
On the Mythological Character of Rhadamanthus.... 331 

On the Mythological Character of Pluto 333 

On a Sentiment in Catullus 335 

Equivoques and Amphibologies 338 

Acrostics , 344 

Echo 345 

Leonine Verses 346 

Expressive Descriptions : 350 

Verses of Whimsical Construction....,, 354 



XXVI CONTENTS. 

Page 

Roman Notes , 358 

Epitaphs 362 

Miscellaneous Epigrams %qq 

Miscellaneous Etymologies, and Peculiar Meanings 

and Usages of Words 373 

Miscellaneous Passages from Horace 379 

Miscellaneous Passages from Juvenal 388 

Miscellaneous Passages from Virgil 397 

Quaint Opinions, Expressions, and Manners of the 

Ancients 413 

Sound Moral Doctrines of the Ancients 418 

Popular Tricks and Superstitious Imaginations of the 

Ancients 420 

Miscellaneous Passages from Plutarch 425 

Miscellaneous Passages from Erasmus 427 

Passage from Sallust..... 429 

Miscellaneous Passages from Pliny the Natural His- 
torian 430 

Passage from iElian de Natura Animalium 434 

Miscellaneous Passages from Aulus Gellius 435 

Miscellaneous Passages from Cicero 439 

Poetical Genealogies and Exploits of Fabulous Per- 
sonages 442 

Miscellaneous Passages from Persius 444 

Miscellaneous Passages from Modern Authors 446 

Miscellaneous Passages from Homer 450 

Miscellaneous Passages from Plautus 456 

Passage from Tacitus 458 

Passage from Quinctilian 459 

Passage from Aristophanes , 9 .. 460 



CLASSICAL DISQUISITIONS 

AND CURIOSITIES. 



COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF TERENCE 
AND PLAUTUS. 



Ambigitur quoties, uter utro sit prior ; aufert 
Pacuvius docti famam senis, Accius alti : 
Dicitur Afrani toga convenisse Menandro ; 
Plautus ad exemplar Siculi properare Epicharmi ; 
Vincere' Csecilius gravitate, Terentius arte. 

Horatii Epist. i. lib. 2. 



Ihe commentators are so much at variance re- 
specting Horace's real drift in his critical epistles, 
whether he gives certain characters as his own or 
as the popular opinion, that we can scarcely avail 
ourselves of his decisions, but as we find them 
confirmed by other and tantamount authorities. 
Among the principal of these is Varro, who thus 
sums up the leading characteristics of Ceecilius and 
Terence : " In argumentis Caecilius poscit palmam; 



2 COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF 

in ethesin Terentius." Horace's grwvitas, therefore, 
as illustrated by this passage, may be applied to 
the affecting cast of Csecilius's general style : and 
that application is confirmed by another observation 
of the same author : " Pathe Trabea, Attilius, et 
Ccecilius facile moverunt." Horace's ars, also, to 
reconcile it in a similar point of view with Varro's 
criticism, may be understood to represent, though 
by too vague a term, that delineation of manners 
which is the obvious meaning of Varro's expres- 
sion, ethesin. But the probability is, that it rather 
applies to the discovery of the double plot, or 
combination of two stories into one, which the 
Latin poets invented to satisfy the craving appe- 
tite of their audience, too little refined to relish the 
Greek simplicity and unity. The degree of per- 
fection to which Terence carried this contrivance, 
and the many occasions on which Plautus contented 
himself with the single plot of the old comedy, 
form a strong point of contrast between these two 
dramatists : and the verb properare, in the line 
devoted to Plautus, shows that such contrast was 
here intended in reference to the management of 
their plots ; because though ars might refer to the 
manners, properare could not ; and this verb must 
not be understood merely, as by some critics, to 
express the closeness with which he imitated, or 
followed up Epicharmus without losing sight of him ; 
an apparent attempt to put more into the verb than 
it has room to contain; but the careless rapidity 
and inartificial winding up of his plots, in which 
he did not feel it necessary to be more exact than 
his model. And this explanation, which places 
arte in substantial, though not in grammatical, 
antithesis with properare, as well as with gravitate, 



TERENCE AND PLAUTUS. 3 

seems quite consonant with that curiosa felicitas in 
Horace, enabling him to make single words do the 
office of whole sentences, and to deliver a criticism 
or a sarcasm, as it were in a nut-shell. These 
opposite habits of composing evidently did not 
arise from the fluctuations of taste in the audience, 
because the plays of each kept possession of the 
stage, and divided the sentiments of its frequenters, 
long after the respective periods of their natural 
lives ; but from the different turn of mind and 
dissimilar talents in the individuals. 

Plautus was a perfect master of the Roman 
language ; so much so, that Varro is stated by 
Quinctilian to have quoted a saying of iElius 
Stilo : " Musas Plautino sermone locuturas fuisse, si 
Latine loqui vellent." He was besides gifted with 
a vein of forcible raillery, and a happy union of 
that buffoonery which always delights a mixed 
audience, with the higher qualities of real genius ; 
there was in him a combination of strong, caustic, 
genuine humour, with a spirit of lively repartee, 
and a facetious turn of expression, always at com- 
mand. He, therefore, had the means of securing to 
himself the goodwill of his audience, independently 
of curiosity, or the complex interest of a fable. 

Terence, on the other hand, confined himself 
strictly and sometimes timidly, within the limits 
of nature and every-day life, even in ' his most 
tumorous characters : he did not range the bound- 
less field of what might have been done or said, 
but transcribed what he had seen and heard in his 
intercourse with mankind, or what he could justify 
on the authority of his Grecian master. The fabric 
of his plots, and the situations in which he places 
the persons of his drama, are often at variance 

b 2 



* COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF 

with modern notions of propriety ; but he carefully 
abstains from that licence and coarseness of par- 
ticularising, from the adoption of that most blunt 
and strongest language, (and we are told the Muses 
would have been somewhat broad, ladies though 
they be,) in which the admirer of the old, and the 
master of the middle comedy indulged. The 
consequence was, that Terence felt it necessary to 
guard against the charge of insipidity, by variety 
of action and accumulation of incident. 

In accounting for the different modes in which 
these two great writers conducted their fables, we 
have been led partly to anticipate some remarks 
on their habits of expression, which were rough 
and unbridled in Plautus, but smooth, regular, 
and polished in Terence. Now it might be sup- 
posed that delicacy was not much more natural to 
a Carthaginian slave, than to a hanger-on of the 
theatre, who had spent his substance on stage dresses, 
and had reduced himself to the necessity of becoming 
a baker's servant, to gain a livelihood by working at 
a hand-mill. But the condition of slaves was not 
always disadvantageous, as we know by the exam- 
ple of more than one eminent writer born in that 
condition, as well as by the instance of Cicero's 
Freed-Man, who was the associate of his literary 
occupations. The slave in question was so for- 
tunate as to fall into the hands of Terentius 
Lucanus, a man of family, and a member of the 
senate, who not only gave him a good education, 
as was the custom with the Roman gentlemen when 
they picked up boys of promise, but at a manly 
age presented him with his freedom, and introduced 
him into the very best society. It was through 
this kind conduct of his master, that the future 



TERENCE AND PLAUTUS. 5 

poet became acquainted with Scipio and Lselius. * 
On this part of the subject, we have a letter of 
Cicero to Atticus, in which the former says, " Se- 

cutus sum, non dico Csecilium ; malus 

enim Latinitatis auctor est: sed Terentium, cujus 
Fabellse propter elegantiam sermonis, putabantur 
a Lselio scribi, &c."t This passage will enable us 
to appreciate the style of both without disparage- 
ment to either. Plautus was said, in the language 
of a preceding quotation, to have spoken the very 
Latin in which the Muses must have expressed 
themselves, had they been born and bred at Rome. 
Cicero, without giving any opinion of it, repeats 
the gossip of Terence's inability to write in so 
polite a style, and the consequent transfer of his 
laurels to the brow of a man of fashion. Eras- 
mus, one of the best judges of classical literature 
at the revival of learning, says, that there is no 
author from whom we can better learn the pure 
Roman style than from the poet Terence. Tt has 
been further remarked on him, that the Romans 
thought themselves in conversation when they 
heard his comedies. When the respective produc- 

* This intimacy, stated by so many ancient writers, and 
alluded to by himself, renders Bonnell Thornton's conjecture 
unnecessary, that he was employed about the stage like Shak- 
speare, and an actor. 

f On this, hear Terence himself, in the Prologue to the 
Adelphi : — 

Nam quod isti dicunt malevoli, homines nobiles 
Eum adjutare, assidueque una scribere : 
Quod illi maledictum vehemens existimant, 
Earn laudem hie ducit maximam, quum illis placet, 
Qui vobis universis et populo placent ; 
Quorum opera in bello, in otio, in negotio, 
Suo quisque tempore usus est sine superbia. 
B 3 



COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF 

tions of these authors are examined on the prin- 
ciples of common sense and modern taste, as- 
sisted and checked by the authorities above-quoted, 
the result of the comparison as to style will 
probably be found as follows. Plautus had the 
raciness of early language, the pith of original 
genius, and the various resources of a man who 
had mixed with human life in all its forms, and 
had kept company with Nature in her working 
dress as well as in her best clothes. Terence was 
the associate of gentlemen : and though the ascrip- 
tion of his plays to Lselius must be considered as 
a mere suspicion, arising from the superior elegance 
and courtly polish of their language ; it is both pro- 
bable in itself and appears to have been credited 
as fact by the ancients, that he was assisted in his 
compositions both by him and Scipio, as amateur 
critics. The consequence of Terence's access to 
such high society was, that while the diction of 
Plautus was more poetical, more pointed, more 
blunt, and more rich in natural touches, he himself 
maintained a decided superiority in the tone of gen- 
tlemanly conversation ; that his copy of the Greek 
model he had adopted was in the best taste of 
scholarship ; that his vivacity excited a smile rather 
than a laugh ; his morals were those of urbanity, 
not of severity \ his satire tickled without stinging. 
Few authors have furnished a larger number of 
maxims for the government or illustration of com- 
mon life. Goldsmith's opinion of him is expressed 
in his complimentary line on Cumberland : — 

The Terence of England, the mender of hearts. 

Plautus, therefore, it should appear from his writ- 
ings and his habits, resembled Shakspeare, as his 



TERENCE AND PLAUTUS. 7 

biographers, right or wrong, have represented him ; 
the hero of the deer-park, of the street before the 
theatre, or the stage within it. Terence was more 
like the Congreve or the Sheridan of the court of 
Queen Anne or George the Third. 

The palm of wit remains to be won, or to be 
divided. With respect to the positive claims of 
Plautus, Cicero and Horace take opposite sides. 
Cicero classes him with the Attic writers of the 
old comedy, with the Socratic philosophers, and 
with the elder Cato. August company for the 
spendthrift and the droll ! He says in his first 
book De Officiis : " Duplex omnino est jocandi 
genus : unum illiberale, petulans, flagitiosum, ob- 
sccenum ; alterum, elegans, urbanum, ingeniosum, 
facetum. Quo genere non modo Plautus noster, 
et Atticorum antiqua comcedia, sed etiam philo- 
sophorum Socraticorum libri referti sunt : mul- 
taque multorum facete dicta; ut ea quag a sene 
Catone collecta sunt, quag vocant cb^o<£#^y j aaTa.' , 
The epithets applied to the second genus are strictly 
and abundantly applicable to Plautus and to the 
Attic writers of the old comedy ; but I fear neither 
can be exempted from some of those assigned to 
the first. Dr. Hurd ascribes the cause of this 
strong predilection in favour of Plautus, to the 
conformity of the old-comedy wit with the genius 
of popular eloquence ; but I think we trace it also, 
in part, to a similar conformity of natural taste. 
Cicero's own wit and humour were, in many in- 
stances, neither refined, nor decent, nor genuine. 
His genius in his Orations appears with as much 
dignity and elevation as brilliancy: and his Trea- 
tise De Oratore, (with the exception I am going to 
state, probably the most perfect of his works,) is not 

b 4 



5 COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF 

only a master-piece of exact criticism, but carries 
the beau ideal of an art as high as it can be carried 
without extravagance : like Longinus, he gives a 
current exemplification of his principles and rules, 
in the march of his own eloquence. But I could 
have been well contented, looking only at Cicero's 
credit, (for the chapters in themselves are very 
curious, and eminently useful as a warning,) that 
the sections in the second book, from 240 to 289, 
had been in a great measure filled up with asterisks, 
and mult a desunt ; for nothing can be more coarse 
than much of the humour here, and still more in a 
most disgraceful letter in the collection Ad Fami- 
liares; nothing more frigid than most of the puns. 
Dr. Hurd seems to adopt Cicero's own apology, that 
"the main end of jesting at the bar is, not to acquire 
the credit of consummate humour, but to carry 
the cause, ut prqficiamus aliquid : that is, to make 
an impression on the people ; which is generally, 
we know, better done by a coarser joke, than by 
the elegance of refined raillery." — Notes on the 
Art of Poetry. 

Now I condemn these classed laws, specimens, 
and models of joking; not solely on the ground 
of coarseness, but because many of the exam- 
ples are cold and vapid, and because the excur- 
sions of wit seem to be properly a casual adjunct 
to parliamentary or forensic eloquence, rather 
than an integral part of it to be treated profes- 
sorially. The Roman orator, it is true, had occa- 
sion prqficere aliquid, translated by Dr. Hurd, to 
make an impression on the people; but the pro- 
miscuous audience should not enter into the 
thoughts of the modern advocate, who addresses 
judges and juries, supposed to be grave and en- 



TERENCE AND PLAUTUS. \J 

lightened. Ought then wit to be excluded from 
public speaking, whether at the bar or in par- 
liament ? Certainly not : and it is in fact more 
frequently and more successfully resorted to by 
modern than by ancient orators, although our 
speakers have little occasion to make an impression 
on the common people, unless on the hustings at 
elections. But the wit of Burke and Sheridan in 
our House of Commons, and of Erskine at our 
bar, was born with the occasion, sudden, vigorous, 
and natural ; not hammered and manufactured on 
the anvil of rhetorical system. The impromptu 
would be more insipid than even " the pathos of 
a week old." Rules for the general conduct of a 
cause, for the selection and arrangement of topics 
and arguments, for almost every thing else with 
which the advocate has to deal, are strictly in 
place, and will be useful in proportion to their 
justness : but Rules for jesting at the bar ! It is 
as if Mr. Butterworth, or any other eminent book- 
seller, were to insert into his catalogue of law 
books, The Barrister's Joe Miller. 
But to return to Plautus : — 

At vestri proavi Plautinos et numeros et 

Laudavere sales : nimium patienter utrumque, 

Ne dicam stulte, mirati. De Arte Poet, 

An attempt has been made to soften this judg- 
ment on the part of Horace, and to reconcile its 
apparent severity with the more favourable opinion 
of Cicero and other critics, by reading, and that 
on MS. authority, non for ne. The criticism would 
then stand thus. The word numeric strictly taken, 
expresses measure and versification ; which, in this 



10 COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF 

author, are often confessedly unequal and irregular. 
Some have supposed that the term is used with 
epistolary freedom, to comprehend language. But 
there seems no occasion to put Horace further 
beyond the pale of received opinion ; since this 
author's purity in that respect is universally al- 
lowed : his works are, indeed, a magazine of Latin 
idiom. His sales, we are told, were borne too pa- 
tiently, though Cicero heartily admired them, as 
elegantes et urbanos. That praise must, however, be 
taken with as much allowance as Horace's censure ; 
for his pleasantries are often indelicate, his wit low, 
and his jests as cold as Cicero's own. Indeed the 
lighter parts of Cicero's writings, as observed upon 
in a preceding paragraph, seem to furnish a com- 
ment ad hominem, on his apparently unqualified 
approbation of Plautus. But Horace rather hint- 
ing than pronouncing a censure on Plautus's 
faults, if we read, non dicam stulte, the indulgence 
expressed by nimium patienter, is ascribed to the 
prejudice of the people in favour of his beauties, 
which is said not to be foolish, that is, without 
foundation or positively erroneous, but too indis- 
criminate. But this reading has obtained pos- 
session of few texts ; and the reading generally 
received makes Horace say that the admiration 
was foolish as well as too tolerant, and that only 
delicacy prevents him from stating it so in plain 
terms. The truth seems to be, that Horace is rather 
righting professionally for himself and his con- 
temporaries, than giving his private and personal 
opinion. Poets and painters have in all ages been 
prone to exclaim against the superstitious venera- 
tion of old masters, as discouraging to the birth 
and expansion of modern genius. Horace, there- 



TERENCE AND PLAUTUS. 11 

fore, lays hold of a tendency in the old comedian, 
as a topic of censure, which the improved delicacy 
of the Augustan age had not chastised out of him- 
self. Neither is his present squeamishness, as 
to Plautus, in unison with his approbation ex- 
pressed elsewhere, of the still less delicate old 
comedy : nor is it very consistent to find fault with 
Plautus on this head, and yet to relish Aristo- 
phanes, who must be included, for more than his 
versification, in the general advice, — 

Vos exemplaria Grseca 
Nocturna versate manu, versate diurna. 

After all, Horace, while exhibiting the faults of 
preceding poets in a strong point of view, for the 
purpose of checking the extravagance of admiration, 
only attributes such to Plautus as are common to 
early dramatic writers in every age and country : 
in our own, not only to the Chapmans, the Lylys, 
and the Deckers, but to Shakspeare, Jonson, and 
Fletcher. 

If Horace has censured the too coarse style of 
Plautus, Caesar, on the supposition that the follow- 
ing lines are truly ascribed to him, characterises 
Terence's plays as devoid of comic spirit : — 

Tu quoque, tu in summis, 6 dimidiate Menander, 
Poneris, et merito, puri sermon is amator; 
Lenibus atque utinam scrip tis adjuncta foret vis 
Comica, ut sequato virtus polleret honore 
Cum Graecis, neque in hac despectus parte jaceres. 
Unum hoc maceror, et doleo tibi deesse, Terenti. 

By the expression, dimidiate Mena?ider, it is 
obvious that the deficiency is not to be understood 



1*2 COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF 

as confined to the comic drollery of the old and 
middle comedy, with which Plautus had so en- 
chanted the dramatic world, as to continue the 
reigning favourite, not only after the appearance of 
Afranius and Terence, but throughout the Au- 
gustan age. Caesar evidently represents him as 
defective also in that other species of comic height- 
ening in which the Greek comedians of the new 
school excelled. When he calls Terence a Me- 
nander by halves, he pronounces him to be a 
beautiful, but faint shadow of his Grecian pro- 
totype. To account for this from the stubborn- 
ness of the Latin tongue, and to say with Dr. 
Hurd, that the two first lines are complimentary, 
and the censure confined to the following, may im- 
prove Terence's relative situation with Menander, 
about whom we know so little, but it leaves the 
lack of vis comica where it found it. Menander, 
very probably, possessed as little of it ; but had 
Terence felt it in himselfi he would have discovered 
precedents and models for its practical use, with 
the same ease and success with which he copied 
the urbanity of Menander. But in fact Terence, 
however Mr. Colman may plead against it, was, in 
some of his plays, little more than a translator of 
that author. With a fund of original humour, he 
might have effected a coalition of the old and new 
comedy from the materials before him, superior to 
any thing in the Greek in every respect, excepting 
that of language. But there, Quinctilian puts any 
approach to a rival grace entirely out of the ques- 
tion, by limiting that undefinable subtlety of ex- 
pression to one dialect, even of the Greek. " Vix 
levem consequimur umbram, adeo ut mihi sermo 
ipse Romanus non recipere videatur illam solis 



TERENCE AND PLAUTUS. 13 

concessam Atticis Venerem, quando earn ne Graeci 
quidem in alio genere linguse obtinuerint." — Instit. 
Orat. lib. x. 1. 

One truth seems to apply to the strictures both 
of Horace and of Caesar. Critical censures, espe- 
cially when conveyed in verse, which so narrowly 
confines the space for qualification, and furnishes 
so strong a temptation to pointed sayings, are, in 
most cases, expressed too positively, and with 
exaggeration. The loss of Menander's works 
prevents us from comparing the copyist with 
his original ; but we must not be hurried away by 
the idea, that because originality and humour were 
not Terence's strong hold, and because in some of 
his pieces he was a professed translator, he had no 
portion of those qualities. There are touches, both 
of comic humour and of true taste in his works, 
scarcely to be surpassed in point of spirit, whatever 
advantage in point of elegance a more tractable 
language might have given to an Attic writer : and 
touches so natural, that in the absence of matter- 
of-fact testimony, we may reasonably infer that 
they were native and not adopted. Donatus first, 
and afterwards Hurd in his Horace, have referred 
to the following as a peculiarly happy stroke of 
character in the Hecyra : — 

Turn tu igitur nihil adtulisti hue plus una sententia? 

Laches, the speaker, a covetous old legacy- 
hunter, has been eagerly enquiring what his kins- 
man Phania had bequeathed him. Pamphilus 
stops his mouth with the moral reflection, that he 
left behind him the praise of having lived well. 
" Is a sentence all you have brought home?" The 



M« COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE . OF 

spirit of this is exquisite, and the turn truly comic. 
Dr. Hurd says, in his Dissertation on the Pro- 
vinces of the Drama, that " this is true humour. 
For his character, which was that of a lover of 
money, drew the observation naturally and forcibly 
from him. His disappointment of a rich succession 
made him speak contemptibly of a moral lesson, 
which rich and covetous men, in their best 
humours, have no high reverence for. And this 
too without design ; which is important, and 
shows the distinction of what, in the more re- 
strained sense of the word, we call humour, from 
other modes of pleasantry. For had a young friend 
of the son, an unconcerned spectator of the scene, 
made the observation, it had then, in another's 
mouth, been wit, or a designed banter on the 
father's disappointment." 

Of this humour, distinguished from pleasantry, 
there is another admirable instance in the Hecyra, 
and that in the same character of Laches : — 

Odiosa haec est aetas adolescentulis : 
E medio aequom excedere est. Postremo jam nos fabulas 
Sumus, Pamphile, senex, atque anus. 

On this Dr. Hurd further remarks, " There is 
nothing, I suppose, in these words which provokes 
a smile. Yet the humour is strong, as before. In 
his solicitude to promote his son's satisfaction, he 
lets fall a sentiment truly characteristic, and which 
old men usually take great pains to conceal ; I 
mean, his acknowledgment of that suspicious fear 
of contempt, which is natural to old age. So true a 
picture of life, in the representation of this weak- 
ness, might, in other circumstances, have created 



TERENCE AND PLAUTUS. 15 

some pleasantry ; but the occasion which forced it 
from him, discovering at the same time the amiable 
disposition of the speaker, covers the ridicule of it, 
or more properly converts it into an object of our 
esteem." 

There is no character, in the delineation of which 
Terence excels more, than in that of the quaint 
and sometimes splenetic, but kind-hearted old man. 
Micio and Demea are an admirably contrasted pair 
of brothers. Chremes and Si mo, in the Andrian, 
are naturally drawn and consistently supported. 
The long narrative of the latter, in the opening 
scene, is also a strong confirmation of Diderot's 
remark on this author's especial skill in conducting 
such necessary explanations. The French critic 
notices the absence of wit, or display of sentiment, 
which he says are always out of place. This is 
perfectly true ; but quiet pathos, and the natural 
mixing up of amiable and selfish feeling, which we 
encounter so much more frequently in life than 
staring exhibitions either of virtue or vice, are 
quite compatible with the narrative parts of dra- 
matic poetry, and give an interest and a heighten- 
ing to it, without which the mere relation of the 
tale would be insipid. Of this we have a pregnant 
instance in the following passage of Simo's story : — 

Ibi turn films 
Cum illis, qui amabant Chrysidem, una aderat frequens ; 
Curabat una funus ; tristis interim, 
Nonnunquam conlacrumabat. Placuit turn id mihi : 
Sic cogitabam ; Hie, parvae consuetudinis 
Causa, hujus mortem tarn fert familiariter : 
Quid, si ipse amasset? quid hie mihi faciet, patri? 
Haec ego putabam esse omnia humani ingeni, 
Mansuetique animi officia. 



1(5 COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF 

Hurd, in his Discourse on Poetical Imitation, 
remarks that this reasoning on Pamphilus's con- 
cern for Chrysis bears a strong resemblance to the 
comment of the Duke in Twelfth Night, on Va- 
lentine's report of Olivia's grief for the loss of a 
brother ; and expresses his surprise that the simi- 
larity of sentiment should not have produced a 
charge of plagiarism against Shakspeare, according 
to the usual habit of the critics. The passage is 
of extraordinary elegance : — 

O, she that hath a heart of that fine frame, 
To pay this debt of love but to a brother, 
How will she love, when the rich golden shaft 
Hath kill'd the flock of all affections else 
That live in her ? 

The Bishop closes his observations with the fol- 
lowing liberal remark : — 

" Common sense directs us, for the most part, 
to regard resemblances in great writers, not as the 
pilferings or frugal acquisitions of needy art, but 
as the honest fruits of genius, the free and liberal 
bounties of unenvying nature" 

On the subject of originality, Terence, whose 
plays were not so well received as he felt that they 
deserved to be, thinks it necessary to vindicate 
his own system of borrowing, in regard to fables, 
in all his Prologues which have come down to us : 
and in that to the Eunuch, he still further apo- 
logises for coincidence of characters, by alleging 
the necessary uniformity of moral description : — 

Quod si personis iisdem uti aliis non licet : 
Qui magis licet, currentes Servos scribere, 
Bonas Matronas facere, Meretrices malas, 



TERENCE AND PLAUTUS. 1J 

Parasitum edacem, gloriosum Militem, 
Puerum supponi, falli per Servum Senem, 
Amare, odisse, suspicari ? Denique 
Nullum est jam dictum, quod non dictum sit prius. 

One cannot but be sorry, that a" man so highly 
gifted, and apparently of such an amiable charac- 
ter, should have been so much hurt, as Terence 
evidently was, by the malice of his calumniators 
and the want of general popularity. That he 
should have been personally run down as an 
imitator was peculiarly unfair, when we consider 
how few Latin authors there are, who are not liable 
to the same charge ; and that after Terence's time, 
through the Augustan age, down to the last gasp 
of classical genius, the greatest writers not only 
formed themselves on the Grecian model, but 
translated more or less from their Grecian pre- 
decessors. If Plautus indulged in a greater licence 
of plot than Terence, it was not because his 
invention was in that respect more fertile, but 
because he served himself from the more va- 
riously furnished storehouse of a different school. 
Indeed Plautus himself seems to have had some 
doubts, whether his own adoption of the liberties 
indulged in by Aristophanes and others, espe- 
cially in the introduction of high and reverend 
personages for low and ludicrous purposes, would 
be tolerated ; at least if we may judge by the 
apology he thought it necessary to make for his 
Amphitruo, in the prologue to it : — 

Faciam ut commista sit Tragicocomaedia : 
Nam me perpetuo facere ut sit Comsedia, 
Reges quo veniant et Di, non par arbitror. 



18 COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF 

Quid igitur ? quoniam hie servos quoque parteis habet. 
Faciam, sit, proinde ut dixi, Tragicocomsedia. 

As a specimen of Plautus's humour and cha- 
racter, we may take the following description of a 
servant's life in place, from the first speech of 
Sosia, the Currens Servus, in the first scene of the 
same play : — 

Quid faciam nunc, si Tresviri me in career em compegerint ? 

Inde eras e promptuaria cella depromar ad flagrum ? 

Nee caussam liceat dicere mihi, neque in hero quicquam 

auxilii siet ? 
Nee quisquam sit quin me omnes esse dignum deputent : ita 
Quasi incudem me miser um homines octo validi caedant : ita 
Peregre adveniens hospitio publicitus accipiar ? 
Hsec heri immodestia coegit, me qui hoc 
Noctis a portu ingratis excitavit. 
Nonne idem hoc luci me mittere potuit ? 
Opulento homini hoc servitus dura est? 
Hoc magis miser est divitis servos : 
Noctesque diesque assiduo satis superque est, 
Quo facto, aut dicto adest opus, quietus ne sis. 

In comparing our two poets, it will be neces- 
sary to guard against the supposition, that Terence 
is all art, and Plautus all rough nature and hu- 
mour. The latter has contrivance abundantly at 
command, though he had not arrived at the 
double plot ; and is peculiarly happy in the little 
circumstances of which he lays hold, to help for- 
ward his fables. Of this there is an example in the 
Miles Gloriosus, Actus 2. Scena 4. v. 27. : — 

Pa. Pergin', sceleste, intendere, atque hanc arguere? 

Ph. Ecastor ergo 
Mihi haud falsum eveniat somnium, quod noctu hoc som- 

niavi. 



TERENCE AND PLAUTUS. 19 

Palasstrio finding it difficult to make Sceledrus 
disbelieve the evidence of his own eyes, Philo- 
comasium artfully introduces this dream of hers, 
for the purpose of reconciling the belief they 
wished to impress, which was so necessary to the 
success of their object, with what he had actually 
seen ; and the appearance of Philocomasium as 
her own twin sister immediately afterwards, per- 
suades Sceledrus, prepared as he was by the 
previous recital, and by the anticipated feeling, 
"ita dorsus totus prUrit," "prius ob oculos sibi 
caliginem obstitisse." 

There are some points of humour in Plautus, 
of which no modern language would admit. Of 
this kind is the following speech of Hegio, in the 
Capteivi, Actus 1. Scena 2. v. 56. : — 

Multis et multigeneribus opus est tibi 
Militibus. primum dum opus est Pistoriensibus. 
Opus Paniceis, opus Placentinis quoque, 
Opus Turdetanis, opus est Ficedulensibus : 
Jam maritumi omnes milites opus sunt tibi. 

There is a sort of untranslateable pun on the 
names of places, as Pistorium and Placentia, Italian 
towns, ascribing to the inhabitants, by inference, 
the pre-eminence in certain trades, which were in 
necessary request for furnishing out entertainments. 
The Pistorienses are both Pistorians and bakers, 
of which he says there are " genera aliquot :" the 
Placentini, both Placentians and pastry-cooks, &c. 

Among the writers of modern comedy, Moliere 
comes in closest contact both with Plautus and 
with Terence. L'Ecole des Maris is obviously 
taken from the Adelphi of Terence, but with an 

c 2 



20 COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF 

addition of interest congenial with the French 
taste. In the Adelphi, two old men of opposite 
characters, a father and an uncle, educate a son 
and a nephew on totally opposite systems. In 
L'Ecole des Maris, two guardians have each a fe- 
male ward committed to their charge ; and, as in the 
Latin play, one is severe and the other indulgent ; 
but in the French play, both are lovers. The 
converse of Moliere's subject was beautifully 
treated by Garrick, in a little piece called The 
Guardian, the hint of which was taken from La 
Pupil e of Monsieur Fagan, a writer who seems to 
have formed himself on the elegant model of 
Terence. But nothing can exceed the art with 
which Moliere, in his Amphitrion, has borrowed 
from Plautus, who had before availed himself of 
Euripides and of Archippus, as the originals who 
had treated this subject among the Greeks, and from 
them the Latin poet introduced it to his country- 
men. Moliere has shown a very just taste, both 
in his alterations and additions. The French cri- 
tics assign the superiority to their own poet ; but 
this can scarcely be conceded, were it only on the 
consideration that he is so much further removed 
from originality. Rotrou had produced the co- 
medy of Les Sosies thirty years before Moliere. 
His Cephalie is a transcript of Plautus's Thes- 
sala ; and their only use in the fable is as con- 
fidantes of Alcmena. But Moliere's Cleanthis, by 
being made the wife of Sosia in addition to her 
other connection with the plot, is rendered a more 
important and entertaining personage. 

Another instance of Moliere's felicity in chang- 
ing and adding, occurs in the conclusion of the 



TERENCE AND PLAUTUS. 21 

piece. Plautus has recourse to the old pis-aller of 
machinery : and Amphitruo concludes gravely, 
though perhaps with a little touch of sarcasm : — 

Nunc, spectatores, Jovis summi causa clare plaudite. 

In Moliere, Sosia finishes with a stroke of 
humour. After observing that on such delicate 
occasions, the selection of complimentary phraseo- 
logy is a matter of difficulty between the parties, 
he says : — 

Le grand Dieu Jupiter nous fait beaucoup d'honneur, 
Et sa bonte, sans doute, est pour nous sans seconde ; 
II nous promet Pinfaillible bonheur 
D'une fortune, en mille biens feconde, 
Et chez nous il doit naitre un fils d'un tres-grand cceur, 

Tout cela va le mieux du monde ; 

Mais enfin coupons auxdiscours; 
Et que chacun chez soi doucement se retire. 

Sur telles affaires toujours, 

Le meilleur est de ne rien dire. 



Moliere took the hint of 1/ Avare, and a great 
part of the comedy itself, from the Aulularia 
of Plautus. The Latin title is derived from aula, 
or olla, the diminutive of which is aulula. This 
signifies a pot, in which the old miser Euclio kept 
the treasure he had found. The very humorous 
conduct of the scene, in which Euclio in the Latin, 
and Harpagon in the French play, receive the 
proposition for the marriage without a portion, is 
implicitly adopted by Moliere, who has also been 
bold enough to adopt Euclio's address to the 
spectators, after Strobilus has stolen his treasure. 
The passages are so strongly illustrative of the 

c 3 



% c 2 COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF 

spirit of both, that I shall transcribe them at 
length : — 

Obsecro vos ego, mihi auxilio, 
Oro, obtestor, sitis, et hominem demonstretis, qui earn 

» abstulerit, 
Qui vestitu et creta occultant sese, atque sedent quasi sint 

frugi. 
Quid ais tu? tibi credere certum est. Nam esse bonum, 

e vultu cognosco. 
Quid est ? quid ridetis ? novi omnes. Scio fures esse hie 

complures. 
Hem, nemo habet horum ! occidisti. die igitur, quis habet ? 

nescis ! 
Heu me miserum, miserum ! perii male perditus ! pes- 

sume ornatus eo. 
Tantum gemiti et mala? molestiae hie dies mihi obtulit, 
Famem et pauperiem : perditissumus ego sum omnium in 

terra. 
Nam quid mihi opus est vita, qui tantum auri perdidi ? 
Quod custodivi sedulo. Egomet me defraudavi, 
Animumque meum, geniumque meum. Nunc eo alii laeti- 

ficantur, 
Meo malo et damno : pati nequeo. 

Qui peut-ce etre? Qu'est-il devenu? Ou est-il? Ou 
se cache-t-il ? Que ferai-je pour le trouver ? Ou courir ? 
Ou ne pas courir ? N'est-il point la ? N'est-il point ici ? 

Quiest-ce? Arrete. Ren-moi mon argent, coquin 

Ah ! e'est moi Que de gens assembles ! Je 

ne jette mes regards sur personne qui ne me donne des 
soupcons, et tout me semble mon voleur. He ? De quoi 
est-ce qu'on parle la ? De celui qui m'a derobe ? Quel 
bruit fait-on la-haut ? Est-ce mon voleur qui y est ? De 
grace, si Ton scait des nouvelles de mon voleur, je supplie 
que l'on m'en dise. N'est-il point cache la parmi vous ? 
lis me regardent tous, et se mettent a rire. 

In both these instances comic despair is carried 
to the utmost; and Harpagon, seizing on his own 



TERENCE AND PLAUTUS. 23 

arm, is a bold, but happy and original exag- 
geration. 

The subsequent scene between Euclio and Ly- 
conides in the one, Harpagon and Valere in the 
other, is a specimen of natural equivoque ; a re- 
course which seldom fails on the stage, even when 
it is extravagant. They mutually mistake each 
other's meaning most humorously: and the Pot 
and the Daughter being both of the same gender, 
the pronouns are let in to play their part with very 
great effect. 

Thus far the ancient and modern poets go hand 
in hand : and good taste will bear Moliere out in 
those incidental touches of humour which he has 
superinduced. Indeed there is nothing in him so 
extravagant as the supposition of Strobilus, that 
Euclio' s desire of saving carries him so far, as not 
only to grudge the escape of smoke from his 
kitchen chimney, but to catch his own breath while 
asleep, in a bag fastened to his mouth and throat. 
We may also notice the " ostende etiam tertiam" 
of Plautus, and the conceit of the cooks being all 
of Geryon's race, and having six hands a-piece. 
But whether Moliere can be justified when he 
travels so far out of the record as to superadd new 
circumstances to the character of the miser, may 
be much doubted. I feel quite clear, that to re- 
present him in love, albeit that passion owes its 
birth and death to avarice, is not natural, and 
therefore a fault. Avarice is an engrossing and 
exclusive tyrant. The making Harpagon a usurer, 
and that towards his own son, renders the character 
more complicated than that of Euclio, who, having 
become rich by chance, has no object beyond the 
safe custody of his treasure. Harpagon's eager- 

c 4 



24 COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF 

ness to amass by accumulation of interest, as well 
as to save by abstinence from expense, is perfectly 
in keeping with the avaricious character, as it ap- 
pears in modern life, and therefore may, I think, 
be considered as a judicious graft on the original 
stock. 

The last piece of Moliere I shall notice is, Les 
Fourberies de Scapin. In this hero of the shoulder- 
knot, the French poet, without direct copying, has 
brought together the humours of both Plautus and 
Terence, in that favourite and soul of the ancient 
stage, the currens Servus, qui fallit Senem. He 
has, however, in the much canvassed scene between 
Geronte and Scapin, descended to farce, and to 
the minor humour of dialect. But the general 
liveliness and rapid succession of intrigue is quite 
in the style of Plautus, especially in the fictitious 
adventure of the Turkish galley. The art with 
which the spectators are informed of the intended 
stratagem, by means of one character talking to 
himself, on the supposition of being alone, and of 
another overhearing and forming his own plans by 
what he says, is very much in Terence's spirit. 
Indeed Scapin bears a strong resemblance to Davus, 
in the Andrian. The first scene of the piece is 
also cleverly contrived, where the " plot is insi- 
nuated into the boxes," by means of a monosyllabic 
and tautological footman, who performs the office 
of Sosia in listening dutifully to his master's story. 
But it is time to close these remarks, which are 
becoming too desultory. Enough has been said 
to prove, that Moliere has, on the whole, shown 
taste and skill in adapting Plautus and Terence to 
modern manners, similar to what those masters of the 
Roman comedy have exhibited, in the dress they 



TERENCE AND PLAUTUS. 25 

have given to their originals. In one respect the 
task of the modern was more difficult, because he 
found it necessary to make his characters French, 
scarcely with the exception of his gods : but the 
Latin authors, in many cases, did not even take 
the trouble to shift their scene from Athens. 



26 



ON THE EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHY. 



'Ewlxovpog 6 TapyriTriog eAsysv, a> oklyov ou^ Uuvov 9 u\XoL toutw 
ye owSev \xuvbv.- — JElian. Var. Hist. lib. iv. cap. 13. 

JJiogenes Laertius mentions four persons who 
bore the name of Epicurus. This circumstance 
has led Cruquius, in his Commentary on Horace, 
to doubt whether the Gargettian Epicurus be the 
founder of the celebrated sect. " Fuit hie Philo- 
demus Epicurus # (ut Strabo scribit) patria Gada- 
rseus : quem Asconius Pedianus in oration e Cic. in 
Lucium Pisonem, scribit Epicureum fuisse ea aetate 
nobilissimum : sed arbitror apud Asconium le- 
gendum esse pro Epicureum, Epicurum dictum, ut 
habet Strabo, vel hunc ex illo restituendum : tamen 
Epicuri cujusdam (quem etiam Gargettium nomi- 
nat) frequens est mentio apud Stobaeum." This 
hesitation seems to have been excited by the passage 
in Stobaeus ; but Statius, Cicero, ^Elian, and Dio- 
genes Laertius, all agree as to the birth-place of 
the founder : which is so far material, that sup- 
posing the Gargettian to be a different person, and 
only a follower, he would remain in possession of 
the excellent maxim ascribed to him by iElian, 
and mucji other good morality, and leave the 
founder with nothing but a burden of metaphysical 

* Diogenes Laertius calls Philodemus an Epicurean. Gas- 
sendi mentions an Epicurus spoken of by Galen, as a maker of 
plasters. — De Vita et Moribus Epicuri. 



ON THE EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHY. 27 

nonsense on his shoulders. Assuming, therefore, 
that there was but one eminent person of this name, 
he died in the second year of the 127th Olympiad, 
129 years after Socrates, and 271 before Christ, 
and consequently was contemporary with Alex- 
ander the Great. This date, which Gassendi says 
he found in a manuscript, was restored by Isaac 
Casaubon, the words xu) efaoorifc having been omit- 
ted by transcribers and printers of D. Laertius, who 
copied one another, through the inaccuracy of the 
first. This error left the date 107, an <l led to 
the gross anachronism of placing his death in the 
reign of Philip, and just after Alexander's birth. 

Of his youth, Diogenes Laertius gives this ac- 
count, not much to the honour of Chaerestrata : — 

Ka) yug <rhv tvj ^rqi itsgiioVTcc uutov s$ toL olxldia, x,txQtxgy,ouc 
StvccyivuiG-xsiv xou cruv rep nuTg) yguy.[xuroi £*&a<rxsiv \v7rg0v 
rivog fjuo-Qaglov. 

Plutarch, in his Disputatio qua docetur ne sua- 
viter quidem vivi posse secundum Epicuri Decreta, 
gives some curious instances of Epicurus's vanity. 
It seems he disclaimed being at all indebted to any 
of his predecessors ; and was continually making 
minute and captious objections against Democritus. 
We have not the means of refuting or verifying 
this charge of disingenuous pride ; but we know, 
historically, that if he made the assertion, it was 
false ; because Democritus was born forty years 
before him, and he borrowed a large portion of his 
doctrine from the writings of that philosopher » 
Another anecdote on the same authority is, that 
he called himself the only wise man. * The third 

* Diogenes Laertius, his regular biographer, treats such sto- 
ries with contempt, and maintains his entire urbanity towards 
all descriptions of persons. 



28 ON THE EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHY. 

involved a most ludicrous application of the atomic 
system to the circumstances of his mother's gest- 
ation : her body contained the exact quantity of 
atoms, the concourse of which was necessary to 
form a wise man. Which of these two propositions 
is the proof) and which the thing to be proved ? 

In estimating the doctrines of Epicurus, whether 
moral or philosophical, it will scarcely be necessary 
to look for materials beyond Cicero, who has given 
a copious and clear exposition of them : and his 
testimony on this subject is so much the more va- 
luable, that so far from being that of a flatterer, it 
was not that of a friend. From a letter to Mem- 
mius, who had obtained a grant of a ruinous edifice 
at Athens belonging to the Epicurean college, 
and intended to build a house there for himself, 
but which grant Cicero requests him to wave in 
favour of his friend Patro, we learn that Cicero 
commenced his philosophical studies under Phae- 
drus, the probable predecessor of Patro in the 
college ; but that on reflection, and in the maturity 
of his judgment, he abandoned the sect and ab- 
jured its principles. He retained, however, a very 
high respect for the learning and personal character 
of his early tutor ; but assures Memmius that his 
good understanding with Patro does not extend to 
philosophy. His own best considered habits of 
thinking and rules of action were drawn from the 
Academy ; and are set forth at large in his Tus- 
culan and Academic Questions, where he declares 
his own adoption of the Socratic system. The 
object of his treatise De Finibus, was to give a his- 
tory of the ancient philosophy. Indeed, in his 
Tusculan and Academic Questions, and in his 
treatise on the Nature of the Gods, as well as in 



ON THE EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHY. 29 

that on the chief Good or 111 of Man, he assumes 
alternately the character of a Stoic, an Epicurean, 
and a Peripatetic ; and for a time forgets his own 
principles in his zeal to do justice to those whom 
he temporarily represents : but in his private cha- 
racter of the Academic, he turns round and attacks 
them all. In one respect this dialogue form rather 
perplexes philosophical discussion. The reader is, 
perhaps, not always attentive to the circumstance, 
whether the speaker of the moment be the author 
or one of his combatants. This has occasioned 
Cicero to be charged with many inconsistencies, 
which a closer application to the course of the 
dialogue would have reconciled. But this mistake 
on the part of the reader must be entirely his own 
fault; for the great Roman is a model of perspi- 
cuity as well as elegance, in the conduct of these 
polite and learned conversations. It may be re- 
marked in passing, that the moderns who have 
adopted this form have been generally unsuccess- 
ful. They have not been happy, like Cicero, in 
identifying themselves with the character which 
they for the moment assume : their Dramatis Per- 
sona? are too evidently brought on, merely to be 
pelted : it is clearly seen at once, what the author's 
system really is, and that " all the rest is leather 
and prunella." In short, the grave impatience of 
modern readers has determined, that philosophical 
disquisition is best conducted as a serious business, 
without theatrical ornament or rhetorical declam- 
ation. 

But however this may be, Cicero's form of com- 
position seems peculiarly adapted to our purpose, 
wanting as we do to appreciate the character of a 
philosopher, whose writings have not come down 



30 ON THE EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHY. 

to us to tell their own tale. Cicero was educated 
in the doctrine, and therefore understood it : he 
weighed it in the balance and found it wanting, 
and therefore threw it off. 

With respect to the imputations so current on 
Epicurus' s moral doctrine, and example, there is 
an important passage in Cicero to a contrary effect, 
De Finibus, lib. i. cap. 20. : — 

" Restat locus huic disputationi vel maxime ne- 
cessarius, de amicitia, quam, si voluptas summum 
sit bonum, affirmatis nullam omnino fore : de qua 
Epicurus quidem ita dicit : omnium rerum, quas ad 
heate vivendum sapientia comparaverit, nihil esse 
mqjus amicitia, nihil uberius, nihil jucundius. Neque 
verohoc oratione solum, sedmultomagisvita, etfa- 
ctis, et moribus comprobavit. Quod quam magnum 
sit, fictae veterum fabulae declarant : in quibus tarn 
multis, tamque variis, ab ultima antiquitate repe- 
titis, tria vix amicorum paria reperiuntur, ut ad 
Orestem pervenias, profectus a Theseo. At vero 
Epicurus una in domo, et ea quidem angusta, quam 
magnos, quantaque amoris conspiratione consen- 
tientes tenuit amicorum greges? quod fit etiam 
nunc ab Epicureis." 

This representation is confirmed by the state- 
ment of Laertius, somewhat hyperbolical, that whole 
cities could not have contained the multitude of 
his friends. We also find that he improved upon 
the Pythagorean community of goods. Every in- 
dividual continued master of his own property and 
patrimony : but a system of mutual kindness and 
assistance was recommended in principle, and so 
carried into effect in practice, as to have pro- 
duced that state of society and friendship so elo- 
quently described by Cicero. We have concurrent 



ON THE EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHY. 31 

testimony to prove, that the moral practice of the 
sect, touching this class of duties, did not dege- 
nerate for some ages ; and that its disciples enjoyed 
profound peace among themselves, while others 
were torn to pieces by party quarrels. * They are 
distinctly traced down to the second century, and 
from the union which then subsisted between them, 
it seems probable that they continued a compact 
and mutually well affected body for some time 
longer. 

The testimony of Cicero, in the second book, 
chap. 25., is still stronger to the correctness of 
Epicurus' s personal conduct : — 

" Ratio ista, quam defendis; praecepta, quae di- 
dicisti, quae probas ; funditus evertunt amicitiam : 
quamvis earn Epicurus, ut facit, in ccelum erferat 
laudibus. At coluit ipse amicitias. Quasi quis 
ilium neget et bonum virum, et com em, et huma- 
num fuisse. De ingenio ejus in his disputationibus, 

non de moribus quaeritur Ac mihi quidem, 

quod et ipse bonus vir fuit, et multi Epicurei fue- 
runt, et hodie sunt et in amicitiis fideles, et in 
omni vita constantes, et graves, nee voluptate, sed 
officio consilia moderantes, hoc videtur major vis 
honestatis, et minor voluptatis. Ita enim vivunt qui- 
dam, ut eorum vita refellatur oratio. Atque ut cae- 
teri existimantur dicere melius, quam facere : sic hi 
mihi videntur facere melius, quam dicere." 

Here is a distinct declaration, that the principles 
of the sect had not led to those practical evils, 
which the dangerous tendency, and in some re- 

* " Ea quae Epicuro placuerunt, ut quasdam Solonis aut Ly- 
curgi leges ab Epicureis omnibus servari." — Themistius apud 
Gassendum, de Vita et Moribus Epicuri. 



32 ON THE EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHY. 

spects the absurdity of the theory would seem na- 
turally to have involved. 

To this Seneca also bears testimony. Now he 
was a leader of the Stoics ; and consequently in- 
clined to censure Epicurus on grounds in the 
least degree plausible. In Epist 21. he thus speaks 
of the frugal fare in the garden of Epicurus : — 

" Eo libentius Epicuri egregia dicta comme- 
moro, ut istis, qui ad ilia confugient, spe mala 
inducti, qui velamentum seipsos suorum vitiorum 
habituros existimant, probem, quocumque ierint, 
honeste esse vivendum. Cum adierint hos hor- 
tulos, et inscriptum hortulis, Hospes hie bene 
manebis, hie summum bonum voluptas est : paratus 
erit istius domicilii custos, hospitalis, humanus, et 
te polenta excipiet, et aquam quoque large mini- 
strabit. Et dicet : Ecquid bene acceptus es ? Non 
irritant, inquam, hi hortuli famem, sed extin- 
guunt : nee majorem ipsis potionibus sitim faciunt, 
sed naturali et gratuito remedio sedant." 

Seneca here confesses, that the best cheer 
Epicurus gave his guests was bread and water. 
The following lines of Juvenal confirm this : — 

In quantum sitis atque fames et frigora poscunt : 
Quantum, Epicure, tibi parvis suffecit in hortis : 
Quantum Socratici ceperunt ante Penates. 

Sat 14. 



We have the evidence of Laertius, that chastity 
was enforced, not only by precepts from the pro- 
fessor's chair, but by personal example. This his 
antagonist, Chrysippus, imputed to insensibility, 
as we are informed in Vita Epicuri : — " Scribit 
Stobaeus quempiam fuisse qui et non iri captum 



ON THE EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHY. 33 

am ore virum sapientem dixerit, et ipsius Epicuri 
exemplo inter caeteros id probarit: Chrysippum 
autem contradixisse, et Epicurum quod attineret, 
excepisse nihil ex ejus exemplo concludi quoniam 
foret avaiVpjToj, sensu carens." This uncandid ex- 
position of an admitted virtue only proves, that 
the odium theoiogiciim is the lineal descendant of 
the odium philosophicum. But be that as it may, 
we receive evidence from various sources, that 
Epicurus and his disciples were exact in the prac- 
tice of virtue, and enjoyed the reputation of men 
trustworthy in all offices of friendship or integrity. 
They were neither buffoons nor profligates. 

Cicero has a passage, De Natur. Deor. lib. i. 
cap. 33., which seems not quite consistent with the 
urbane character elsewhere given of him, and sup- 
ports the charge brought by Plutarch and others, 
that he professed to be <xvToVti*7iTo$ : — 

" Sed stomachabatur senex, si quid asperius di- 
xeram ? cum Epicurus contumeliosissime Aristo- 
telem vexaverit : Phaedoni Socratico turpissime 
maledixerit: Metrodori, sodalis sui, fratrem, Ti- 
mocratem, quia nescio quid in philosophia dissen- 
tiret, totis voluminibus conciderit : in Democritum 
ipsum, quern secutus est, fuerit ingratus : Nausi- 
phanem, magistrum suum, a quo nihil (or nonnihil 
according to Pearce's conjecture) didicerat, tarn 
male acceperit." 

That Epicurus should have quarrelled with 
Timocrates, can be matter neither of wonder nor 
reproach, when we find that refractory disciple not 
only deserting the sect, but representing his master 
as a glutton and a drunkard, and joining in those 
other slanders on the part of the Stoics, which 
are so clearly refuted in Gassendi's Life of Epi- 



34 ON THE EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHY. 

curus. Among the most scandalous of these is 
that relating toLeontium, in Athenaeus, lib. xiii. : — 

Ourof ovv 'Et7rinovoo§ ov Asovtiov z\-/iv epoof^svYjV, tyjv en) 
STctipeiot S»a/3or)TOV yevo^ev^v ; y Ss oufo ore qiXoaotpdlv vjg£aro, 
liTavuaro STUipovaru, nua-l ts ioIc, 'TLmxovpslois o-uvvjv ev to1$ 
XYj7rQig 9 ^-itixoupca de xca avctipuvdov* cocrr exelvov noWyv <ppovT&ct 
7toio6[j.evov ai)TY)$y tout e^av'iCf-w dux roov 7rpb$ ' Eppap^ov lltl- 

(TTOX&V. 

This is the Hermachus of Diogenes Laert. x. 
15., and of Cicero De Finib. ii. 30., of the old 
editions of Athenaeus, of Seneca, and of Plutarch. 
But Villoison shows, from the subscription of a 
bronze statue found at Herculaneum, and from an 
unpublished treatise of Philodemus on rhetoric, 
that the name is as given by Schweighaeuser, on 
these authorities, Hermarchus. He is mentioned by 
Philodemus, as it appears, as a very celebrated 
philosopher, and was the heir and successor of 
Epicurus. 

With respect to the numerous letters ascribed to 
him, on which it has been attempted to establish a 
disadvantageous impression of his personal charac- 
ter, a large collection of them is stated to have 
been forged for scandalous purposes : — 

AiOTipos $s 6 %rco'ixos Ivvpevox; eywv npbg olvtov, 7rMpoTMToi 
ctVTov 8ja|3e/3A>j}tev, t7no~T0Aa£ <pepwv 7rsvT>jH0VTa otaeKyel^ w$ 
'EtTrixovgoV kou rot slg Xp6<ri7T7rov uvoL^epo^evot. emvToXux., ch$ 
'Enixovpov <juvtu%ci$. 

With respect to the pious frauds, according to 
the morality of rival schools, and the system of 
defamation, by which an unfavourable impression 
of Epicurus was produced, as well as the insidious 
use made of his doctrine by some of his disciples, 
we have again an unsuspicious witness in Seneca, 
De Vita beata, cap. 12. " Ita non ab Epicure im- 



ON THE EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHY. 35 

pulsi luxuriantur, sed vitiis dediti, luxuriam suam 
in philosophise siim abscondunt : et eo concurrunt, 
ubi audiunt laudari voluptatem. Nee aestimatur 
voluptas ilia Epicuri (ita enim mehercules sentio) 
quam sobria et sicca sit: sed ad nomen ipsum 
advolant, quaerentes libidinibus suis patrocinium 
aliquod ac velamentum." 

In the same spirit of calumny, a letter appears 
in the second book of Alciphron, professedly 
written from Leontium to Lamia. It begins 
thus : — 

Ovlsv dvo-xpso-roTspov 00$ 'ioixsv Icttj nuXiv psipaxisuopsvou vpscr- 
fi'jrov. oia. jtcs 'E>7rlxovpo$ qvto$ SioixeT, ttuvtcc AojSopwv, ttuvtol 
v7T07rrsvcuv, S7n crroAac ot$ia,kvT0V$ jxoi ypotfoov, kx.diwx.cjov ex tou 
XY\7tou, {xa. Tr t v ' 'A<ppo8*V*jv el Adwvtg vjv (jf&j syyug oyfioyxovTot 
ysyova>§ gnj, ovx a.v clvtov Y\vzo-yo\vrp tyQeipiwvTQg xa) (pikovocovvrog 
xa) xatToi7rs7ri\Yifji,svou sv pu\u 1:0x01$ ctvri niXoov* 

This letter carries internal marks of forgery. 
Leontium represents her old lover as eighty years 
of age : now Epicurus died in his seventy-second 
year, and Leontium died before him. In proof 
of this we find in Gassendi, that she was either 
the wife or the mistress Metrodori, sodalis sui, as 
Cicero has it ; and that they left a son, mentioned 
in Epicurus' s will, as an orphan recommended by 
his friend Metrodorus. This anachronism is de- 
cisive ; and there are other suspicious circum- 
stances about the letter. In the passage above 
quoted, she says, that he sent her letters written in 
such a style that no ingenuity can solve their mean- 
ing; and in another passage, she says she will 
rather change this land for some other j ? rats sma-To- 
xcls ccutov toLs hourvourTous uvegopM. Again she speaks of 
him in point of language, as if hx Kcmvo&oidcts np&Tos 
tyiv l EAA«5a rjxuv. Now it is very unlikely that his 

D 2 



36 ON THE EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHY. 

letters should be disjointed, when we have the 
testimony of Diogenes Laertius, that perspicuity 
was the sole object of attainment in his style. 
With respect to the Cappadocian brogue or slang 
imputed to him, there certainly is a passage in 
Athenseus immediately before that just quoted, 
where his style is represented as inelegant : and 
Casaubon, in his notes, affirms that Epicurus could 
not speak the Greek language correctly. He 
does not state his authority for that assertion ; so 
that it may possibly be no better than this lady's 
supposititious sarcasm on his Cappadocian-like dia- 
lect, But the expressions of Athenaeus are easily 
reconcilable with those of Diogenes Laertius. 
The probability is, that aiming at perspicuity, he 
neglected the ornaments of eloquence : his periods 
might be unmelodious, and his style rather let 
down to vulgar capacity, than raised to the level 
of polished society ; but clearness and connection 
were necessary in a writer or a lecturer, who wished 
to lead his classes through the intricacies of so 
perplexed a labyrinth. 

Metrodorus, as well as Timocrates, is said to 
have deserted the standard of his leader. Against 
this supposition, Gassendi, De Vita et Moribus 
Epicuri, adduces the following argument. "Sane 
si Metrodorus a vivente adhuc Epicuro defecisset, 
quaesitum non fuisset ex Arcesila (qui duodecim 
annis Epicuro supervixit) cur homines a cceteris ad 
Epicureos, ab Epicureis vero ad cceteros non com- 
migrarent" Had two conspicuous instances of 
desertion been before the public, such a question 
would scarcely have been put to Arcesilaus. But 
whatever may be thought of that proof; and Bayle 
treats it with great contempt, it is not probable 



ON THE EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHY. 37 

that the son of a person, who had been inconstant 
in so important a matter as sectarian adherence, 
would be kindly mentioned in the will of his in- 
jured friend : or at all events, however placable 
that friend might be in his nature, the seceder 
must have had a more than usual share of assurance, 
to have been the first proposer of such an adoption. 
But to the continuance of the friendship between 
Epicurus and Metrodorus, we have Seneca's tes- 
timony. After speaking of Rutilius, Epist. 79. 
" Nunquid non sorti suse gratias egit, et exsilium 
suum complexus est ? De his loquor, quos illu- 
stravit fortuna, dum vexat : quam multorum pro- 
fectus in notitiam evasere, post ipsos ? quam 
multos fama non excepit, sed emit ? Vides Epi- 
curum, quantopere non tantum eruditiores, sed 
haec quoque imperitorum turba miretur. Hie 
ignotus ipsis Athenis fuit, circa quas delituerat. 
Multis itaque jam annis Metrodoro suo superstes, 
inquadam epistola, cum amicitiam suam et Metro- 
dori, grata commemoratione cecinisset, hoc no- 
vissime adjecit, Nihil sibi et Metrodoro inter bona 
tanta nocuisse, quod ipsos ilia nobilis Graecia non 
ignotos solum habuisset, sedpene inauditos. Num- 
quid ergo non postea, quam esse desierat, inventus 
est? numquid non opinio ejus emicuit? Hoc 
jyietrodorus quoque in quadam epistola confitetur, 
se et Epicurum non satis eminuisse : sed post, se et 
Epicumm, magnum paratumque nomen habituros, 
apud eos qui voluissent per eadem ire vestigia." 

Chrysippus and Epicurus are represented as 
the two most voluminous writers of the philo- 
sophical tribe. Diogenes Laertius, lib. x. num. 
26., gives the palm to Epicurus. Fsyovs U noxvypec- 

<P<jotolto$ 6 'Iinrlxovpos, kuvtus v7rspfix\\6(Asvo$ 7rA^s< /3//3a/o;v« 

D 3 



38 ON THE EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHY. 

But Chrysippus was so animated with a spirit of 
rivalship, that no sooner had Epicurus put forth 
one book, than he wrote another ; and that with 
so much more haste than good speed, that he fell 
into continual incorrectness and repetition, in con- 
sequence of not allowing himself time to read over 
his rough copy. On this subject we have a pas- 
sage in the life of Chrysippus, lib. vii. num. 181. 

K«» 'A7ro\\6$oopo$ 8e 6 'A^vouos ev t>j a-vvuywyYi twv SoyptxTcov 
fiovXopsvoc. 7rupKTTuveiv, OTi roc ''Eimuovpov olxetot dvvuixei ys- 
ypaju-jaeva, xoti uTrupuftzTa ovtu, \tMpio) 7rAs/o> ear) toov Xpu- 
cnWou /3j/3AjW, <p^<nv ovtciqs uutyj Ty Xs£ei, E'j yap tic, ol$iXq\ 
roov 'Xpv<ri'ir7rov /3<j3a/«;v oV uKXorpax TrctpctTsQsiTOLij xevoc. otUTco b 

X*prw xoLTuXeXetyeTcii. The number of volumes writ- 
ten by Epicurus is stated at three hundred, without 
a single quotation : Chrysippus, on the contrary, 
is represented as a mere compiler, confining him- 
self to the collection of authorities. 

Without entering into the minutiae of an exploded 
philosophy, the leading doctrines of Epicurus are, 
the atomic system, in which he deviates from the 
dogma of Democritus concerning the soul of 
atoms ; a set of opinions, which lead in their con- 
sequences to impiety, whatever might be the inten- 
tion or the practice of their author, concerning the 
nature of the gods : and his method of explaining 
liberty. 

St. Augustin, in his refutation of Democritus, 
has pointed out a difference between him and 
Epicurus, which has not been noticed by writers 
in general. " Quanquam Democritus etiam hoc 
distare in naturalibus quaestionibus ab Epicuro 
dicitur, quod iste sentit inesse concursioni ato- 
morum vim quandam animalem et spiritalem : qua 
vi eum credo et imagines ipsas divinitate praeditas 



ON THE EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHY. 39 

dicere, non omnes omnium rerum, sed deorum, et 
principia mentis esse in universis quibus divinitatem 
tribuit, et animantes imagines, quae vel prodesse 
nobis soleant vel nocere. Epicurus vero neque 
aliquid in principiis rerum ponit praeter atomos, 
id est, corpuscula quaedam tarn minuta, ut etiam 
dividi nequeant, neque sentiri, aut visu, aut tactu 
possint : quorum corpusculorum concursu for- 
tuito, et mundos innumerabiles, et animantia, et 
ipsas animas fieri dicit, et deos quos humana 
forma non in aliquo mundo, sed extra mundos, 
atque inter mundos constituit : et non vult omnino 
aliquid praeter corpora cogitare : quae tamen ut 
cogitet, imagines dicit ab ipsis rebus, quas atomis 
formari putat defluere, atque in animum introire 
subtiliores quam sunt illae imagines quae ad oculos 
veniunt." 

These are vain speculations ; but scarcely more 
so than the distinction of the Peripatetics between 
matter and the material soul of brutes, the hy- 
pothesis of automata, or that of the soul of the 
world. 

On the unavoidable tendency of the atomic 
philosophy to atheism, Seneca has a strong and 
pointed passage, accompanied with a candid ex- 
ception against any inference disadvantageous to 
the personal piety of Epicurus, and a compliment 
to the disinterested and philosophical grounds of 
that piety. " Tu denique, Epicure, Deum inermem 
facis. Omnia illi tela, omnem detraxisti potentiam, 
et ne cuiquam metuendus esset, projecisti ilium 
extra motum. Hunc igitur inseptum ingenti 
quodam et inexplicabili muro, divisumque a con- 
tactu et a conspectu mortalium, non habes quare 
verearis : nulla illi nee tribuendi, nee nocendi 

d 4 



40 ON THE EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHY. 

materia est. . . . Atqui hunc vis videri colere, 
non aliter quam parentem : grato, ut opinor, animo: 
aut si non vis videri gratus, quia nullum habes 
illius beneficium, sed te atomi et istae micae tuae 
forte ac tern ere conglobaverunt, cur colis ? Propter 
majestatem, inquis, ejus eximiam, singularemque 
naturam. Ut concedam tibi : nempe hoc facis 
nulla spe, nullo pretio inductus. Est ergo aliquid 
per se expetendum, cujus te ipsa dignitas ducit : 
id est honestum." — De Beneficiis, lib. iv. cap. 19- 

Thus much for the lofty, but cold and inefficient 
principle on which it was attempted to reconcile 
the eternal existence of matter with the philosophy 
of piety ! But the duties of piety are appointed to 
be practised in the temples and in the streets, and 
not to be treated as subjects of curious speculation 
in the library, to feed the reveries of abstraction, 
or give play to the subtleties of argument. Reli- 
gion, whether considered in the light of philo- 
sophy, or as involving the practical rule of life, is 
not to be treated as a question between the Deity 
and the student, but between the Deity and the 
people : it is neither a code of honour for the 
gentleman, a string of propositions for the theorist, 
nor a body of laws for the politician or the legis- 
lator, to overawe the many-headed beast. It is a 
system of faith, a rule of practice, and a fund of 
consolation to all God's creatures ; and the lowest 
are as capable as the highest, the most dull as 
capable as the most acute, the most shallow as 
capable as the most profound, of comprehending 
its plainness, and of appropriating its benefits both 
temporal and eternal. 

The asinine position in which his atoms have 
placed Epicurus, between Fate and Liberty, is 



ON THE EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHY. 41 

perplexing to him, and ludicrous to the spec- 
tators. But we must not look at him too con- 
temptuously on that account, when we consider 
the extreme difficulty which modern and Christian 
metaphysicians find, in settling the limits between 
free-will and necessity. The question is not, and 
probably never will be set at rest. The insu- 
perable difficulty seems to be this. If we go the 
whole length of the former, we seem to deny the 
prescience of God ; for how could any being 
know, a year ago, or ten thousand years ago, how 
I shall act an hour hence, when I, a perfectly free 
agent, am not now determined how I shall act, 
and do not mean to make up my mind till the last 
moment ? On the other hand, if, to avoid Scylla, 
we run upon the Charybdis of necessity, we incur 
the double danger, of setting ourselves free, as 
machines and not accountable agents, from all 
moral responsibility, and of making the Deity not 
only the cause, or to say the least of it, the unpre- 
venting by-stander, but even almost, if not quite, 
the perpetrator of evil. No Christian philosopher 
will commit such suicide, as to leap into either of 
these gulfs : and therefore all endeavour, some 
more successfully than others, to steer a middle 
course between them : or, to change the meta- 
phor, they endeavour, like skilful artists, to se- 
lect such parts of each system as will work up 
best together, and dove- tail into a uniform and 
practical piece of machinery. I am not going to 
be so rash, as to enter far upon this subject ; but I 
think we may feel our way to it, and make some- 
thing like an approach, in the following manner. 
How would an ordinary, average man act in such 
or such circumstances ? To this question a person 



42 ON THE EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHY. 

of sound sense, and much knowledge of the world, 
will know how to return a shrewd, and probable 
answer. In fact, the question is asked, and 
answered, and that not only speculatively and 
curiously, but the answer is acted upon, every day. 
Should the question be put respecting the friend 
of this sensible man, whose general character, 
private sentiments, peculiarities and oddities are 
known to him ; his quantum of wisdom and good 
conduct in his grave capacity, as a member of 
parliament or a churchwarden, his nonsense and 
folly in the recesses of Ids family; the answer 
will be justified by the event in a large majority of 
cases. But as no man can fathom all the depths 
of his nearest friend's heart ; or, if he could, his 
own reach of reason would not be far enough to 
comprehend and estimate unerringly all he might 
have found there ; in a minority, bearing some 
assignable proportion to the majority of cases, the 
answer will fail in some points or altogether. Yet 
this attempt at prescience, whether successful or 
unsuccessful, has no interfering influence over the 
liberty and independence of the friend so specu- 
lated upon: for we assume the whole discussion 
to take place with strangers, without the know- 
ledge of the party. Should this party, having 
acted wrong, be subsequently called to account, 
and having received a hint that his friend had been 
prophesying his delinquency, plead predestination 
as his apology, no jury, no commissioners of bank- 
rupts would listen for a moment to such a plea : 
the court would so entirely doubt its sincerity, 
that they would scarcely quarter him on the 
Lunatic Asylum instead of committing him to 
gaol. The only difference between the prescience 



ON THE EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHY. 43 

of the wise man and that of the Deity, but that a 
most important one, is that the first is fallible, the 
last infallible. But that infallibility has no ten- 
dency whatever to exonerate the evil doer. It 
lays no more previous obligation to do evil, than 
would the fallible prognostication which happened 
to be true, but might have been false. 

I do not know whether we may not be assisted 
in unravelling this tangled thread, by the very 
perplexities of Epicurus. 

To secure his liberty, he thought it necessary to 
deny that every proposition is either true or false. 
He was afraid of the affirmative ; Chrysippus could 
not support his fatality with the negative, and 
thought it inconsistent with common sense. Cicero 
gives the following account of the controversy. 
" Itaque contendit omnes nervos Chrysippus, ut 
persuadeat, omne u%lcopu aut verum esse, ant fal- 
sum. Ut enim Epicurus veretur, ne, si hoc con- 
cesserit, concedendum sit, fato fieri, quaecumque 
fiant : (si enim alterutrum ex seternitate verum 
sit, esse id etiam certum : et, si certum, etiam 
necessarium : ita et necessitatem, et fatum con- 
firmari putat) sic Chrysippus metuit, ne, si non 
obtinuerit, omne, quod enuntietur, aut verum 
esse, aut falsum, non teneat, omnia fato fieri, et 
ex causis aeternis rerum futurarum. Sed Epicurus 
declinatione atomi vitari fati necessitatem putat. 
Itaque tertius quidam motus oritur extra pondus 
et plagam, (deviating from the perpendicular, "which 
he holds to be the natural, and as it were instinctive 
tendency of the atom,) cum declinat atomus inter- 
vallo minimo. Id appellet Ia^io-to*. Quam de- 
elinationem sine causa- fieri si minus verbis, re 
cogitur confiteri Hanc rationem Epicurus 



44 ON THE EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHY. 

induxit ob earn rem, quod veritus est, ne, si semper 
atomus gravitate ferretur naturali, ac necessaria, 
nihil liberum nobis esset, cum ita moveretur animus, 
ut atomorum motu cogeretur. Hinc Democritus, 
auctor atomorum, accipere maluit, necessitate omnia 
fieri, quam a corporibus individuis naturales motus 
avellere." — De Fato, cap. 10. But Cicero had 
before said, cap. 9., that he need not have denied 
the doctrine, maintained not only by Chrysip- 
pus, but by Leucippus and Democritus from 
whom he borrowed. "Nee magis erat verum, 
Morietur Scipio, quam, Morietur illo modo : nee 
minus necesse mori Scipionem, quam illo modo « 
mork nee magis immutabile ex vero in fal- 
sum, Necatus est Scipio, quam Necabitur Scipio : 
nee, cum haec ita sint, est causa, cur Epicurus 
fatum extimescat, et ab atomis petat praesidium, 
easque de via deducat, et uno tempore suscipiat 
res duas inenodabiles ; unam, ut sine causa fiat 
aliquid, ex quo exsistet, ut de nihilo quippiam 
fiat, quod nee ipsi, nee cuiquam physico placet; 
alteram, ut, cum duo individua per inanitatem 
ferantur, alterum e regione moveatur, alterum 
declinet. Licet enim Epicuro, concedenti, omne 
enuntiatum aut verum, aut falsum esse, non vereri, 
ne omnia fato fieri sit necesse : non enim aeternis 
causis, naturae necessitate manantibus, verum est 
id, quod ita enuntiatur : Descendit in Academiam 
Carneades : nee tamen sine causis : sed interest 
inter causas fortuito antegressas, et inter causas 
cohibentes in se efficientiam naturalem. Ita et 
semper verum fuit, Morietur Epicurus, cum duo et 
septuaginta annos vixerit, Archonte Pytharato ; ne~ 
que tamen erant causae fatales, cur ita accideret : 
sed, quod ita cecidisset, certe casurum, sicut ceci- 
dit, fuit." 



ON THE EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHY. 45 

In this illustration touching the period of Epi- 
curus's death, Cicero seems to have laid hold of 
the subtle, but true distinction, that there were 
no necessary causes why he should die just at that 
time ; but its having so happened, shows that it 
was so to happen from accidental causes. Now 
the question is, whether the tertius motus of Epi- 
curus, whimsical as it is in his application of it, 
may not enable us to avoid the extremes of pre- 
destination or the denial of foreknowledge. We 
probably increase our own difficulties, by looking 
too exclusively at the final act as a single point, 
which confessedly must either be or not be, and 
negligently passing over all that vacillation of 
purpose and alternation of opinion on the part of 
the person ultimately acting either right or wrong, 
which Epicurus would ascribe to the atoms de- 
clining from the direct line in the vacuum, but which 
middle state of mind is as much the subject of that 
foreknowledge, with the exact moment at which 
hesitation shall subside into resolution, as the overt 
act which closes the whole. The foreknowledge 
in question therefore is prophetic, and it is judicial ; 
but it is not compulsory. As the subtlety of the 
distinction can only be rendered tangible, to those 
who are not habituated to these discussions, by 
familiar illustration, the foreknowledge of God 
may perhaps be best reconciled with the free-will 
of man, the mercies of his moral providence with 
the allowance of evil in the world, by running a 
parallel, but at a vast distance, between his conduct 
and that of an earthly father. The father, wise 
and experienced, is anxious to preserve the in- 
nocence and virtue of his son ; but is aware of all 
the influence which the temptations of the world 
exercise over the young and thoughtless. He 



46 ON THE EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHY. 

might indeed ensure his great object by locking his 
son up, or at least by never trusting him out of his 
sight : but he considers that forced virtue is no 
virtue at all ; that a slave, however well he may 
conduct himself, holds not the moral rank of a free 
man. He therefore throws his son into general 
society, at the risk of his plunging into all manner 
of vice, and with the certainty that he will fall 
into many errors. How then is his paternal watch- 
fulness to be reconciled with this abandonment? 
By the indirect mode of its operation. He looks at 
his son's movements from a distance, he exercises 
an unperceived influence, by means which though 
artificially contrived, appear to the subject acted 
upon not only natural, but accidental. But these 
means, because they must not be visible nor ope- 
rate by force, do not always accomplish their end : 
and the father foreknows such occasional failure, 
for which he provides this remedy. He lays such 
a train of consequences, he graduates such a scale 
of penalty, that the first transgression shall operate 
as a warning, the second shall produce suffering, 
but without absolute ruin, the third shall be accom- 
panied with such severe results, as shall be calcu- 
lated to ensure repentance without engendering 
despair. Superinduce upon the erroneous calcu- 
lations of man, perfection and unerring wisdom, 
and you have something like a theory of Divine 
Providence, not at variance with free agency. * 

* After all, I am conscious of having rather removed the 
difficulty one step higher, than explained it away. Prescience 
itself seems accounted for by the analogy given in illustration ; 
but the question remains how to reconcile it with power, and 
that power almighty. The earthly father, though he foresee 
evil, cannot prevent it ; the Heavenly Father might, but does 
not. We must here limit our opinions within the sphere of 
revelation, and abandon vain philosophy. 



ON THE EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHY. 47 

But to return to Epicurus ; we have not yet 
done with that precious contrivance of his, the 
declination of atoms. Rather than give up his 
point to his adversary, he proposes an hypothesis 
connecting two propositions, between which there 
is neither connection nor dependence. The soul 
of man is composed of atoms, which have the 
common property of other atoms, that they move 
necessarily in right lines ; but the atoms com- 
posing the soul are in one respect sui generis, that 
they decline a little from the straight way : there- 
fore the soul of man is a free agent. It is impos- 
sible not to ask, Wherefore ? Let us hear Cicero's 
criticism on this declination. " Hoc persaepe 
facitis, ut, cum aliquid non verisimile dicatis, et 
effugere reprehensionem velitis, afFeratis aliquid, 
quod omnino ne fieri quidem possit ; ut satius 
fuerit illud ipsum, de quo ambigebatur, concedere, 
quam tarn impudenter resistere : velut Epicurus, 
cum videret, si atomi ferrentur in locum inferiorem 
suopte pondere, nihil fore in nostra potestate, quod 
esset earum motus certus et necessarius ; invenit, 
quo modo necessitatem effugeret, quod videlicet 
Democritum fugerat. Ait atomum, cum pondere 
et gravitate directo deorsum feratur, declinare 
paullulum. Hoc dicere turpius est, quam illud, 
quod vult, non posse defendere." — De Natura 
Deor. lib. i. cap. C Z5. So must we think : and 
the apology of Epicurus for the liberty taken by 
this class of his atoms, that they have deviated 
from the up and down of their fellows only paul- 
lulum, reminds me of an amusing passage in 
Froissart. The quaint old historian softens down 
the act of the Count de Foix, in killing his son 
and heir, Gaston, by alleging ill luck, an evil hour, 



48 ON THE EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHY. 

the boy's weakness, and the extreme smallness of 
the point of the knife : in short, he killed his son 
paullulum. The circumstances of the murder, 
and the causes which led to it, are altogether 
whimsical. The count had promised his subjects, 
with whom Gaston was a favourite, that he would 
not put him to death, though he deserved it ; but 
would only chastise him by two or three months' 
imprisonment, and then send him on his travels. 
The youth took his confinement in dudgeon, and 
would not eat. The count fell into a passion at 
this, and, in the words of my late friend Mr. 
Johnes's translation, " without saying a word, left 
his apartment and went to the prison of his son. 
In an evil hour, he had in his hand a knife, with 
which he had been paring and cleaning his nails, 
he held it by the blade so closely that scarcely the 
thickness of a groat appeared of the point, when, 
pushing aside the tapestry that covered the en- 
trancej of the prison, through ill luck, he hit his 
son on a vein of the throat, as he uttered, ' Ha, 
traitor, why dost thou not eat ? ' and instantly left 
the room, without saying or doing anything more. 
The youth was much frightened at his father's 
arrival, and withal exceedingly weak from fasting. 
The point of the knife, small as it was, cut a vein, 
which as soon as he felt, he turned himself on one 
side and died." Let it not be supposed, however, 
that the Count de Foix was a monster : he behaved 
like the rest of the world on melancholy occasions : 
"he ordered his barber to be sent for, and was 
shaven quite bare : he clothed himself, as well as 
his whole household, in black." 

Carneades, according to Cicero, invented a more 
subtle solution than that of the Epicureans. " Acu- 



ON THE EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHY. 49 

tius Carneades, qui docebat, posse Epicureos su- 
am causam sine hac commenticia declinatione 
defendere. Nam cum doceret, esse posse quen- 
dam animi motum voluntarium, id fuit defendi 
melius, quam introducere declinationem, cujus 
prsesertim causam reperire non possent. Quo 
defenso, facile Chrysippo possent resistere. . . . 
. . . De ipsa atomo dici potest, cum per inane 
moveatur gravitate et pond ere, sine causa moveri, 
quia nulla causa accedat extrinsecus. Rursus 
autem, ne omnes a physicis irrideamur, si di- 
camus, quidquam fieri sine causa, distinguen- 
dum est, et ita dicendum, ipsius individui hanc 
esse naturam, ut pondere et gravitate moveatur, 
eamque ipsam esse causam, cur ita feratur. Si- 
militer ad animorum motus voluntaries, non est 
requirenda externa causa. Motus enim volun- 
tarius earn naturam in se ipse continet, ut sit in 
nostra potestate, nobisque pareat: nee id sine 
causa. Ejus enim rei causa, ipsa natura est." — 
De Fato, cap. 11. This is ingenious: but it does 
not seem to exempt us from the fatality of the 
Stoics. These voluntary motions of the soul, 
though not dependent on external causes, are 
dependent on the nature of the soul, in the same 
manner as the motion of gravity depends on the 
nature of atoms. Nor do we escape from the 
difficulty on the Platonic system : for that pro- 
ceeds on the supposition that matter had a soul, 
even before God framed the world. Plutarch 
discusses this question, De Animse Procreatione, 
in Timaeo Platonis. In the course of that treatise, 
he thus expresses himself, with respect to the 
doctrine of atoms : — 

*E7nxou£a> fjLsy yug ouSs axct§=$ eyxhlvai ty\v uroy.w truyxoogov- 

E 



SO ON THE EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHY. 

<nv, oj§ avaiTiov sTrsiVtzyovTi xlv^criv Ik tov prj ovto$' clvto) 8s 
xaxiav xa) xaxofiuipovlav to<tuuty\v, hhug rs •sjspI areola pvplag 
aromas xa) Ivc^sgeiag, ahluv hv tou$ aqyai^ oux. e%ov(ra; } holt 
e7raxoXou§Yi(rw ysyovevai Asyoucnv. 

Lactantius ascribes the popularity of the Epi- 
curean doctrine, not to its merit, but to the alluring 
term of pleasure. " Epicuri disciplina multo cele- 
brior semper fuit, quam caeterorum, non quia veri 
aliquid afferat, sed quia multos populare nomen 
voluptatis invitat." — Divin. Instit. lib. iii. cap. 17* 

After the revival of learning in the fifteenth 
century, Epicurus began to be spoken of in more 
favourable terms, at least in point of morals, than 
the undistinguishing character of barbarous ages 
and the prejudices of schoolmen and monks had 
previously allowed. Gassendi says, " Cum Epi- 
curus infamis fuisset habitus tota ilia pene saecu- 
lorum serie, qua literae bonae sepultae jacuerunt ; 
vix tamen libros humaniores, pulvere excusso, re- 
diisse in manus ante duo fere saecula, quam omnes 
pene eruditi symbolum pro eo contulerunt." — De 
Vita et Moribus Epicuri. 

Among many others, some of whom held up 
Epicurus as the man, of all the ancient philoso- 
phers, who came nearest to the truth ; some, on 
the other hand, were content with apologising for 
his errors ; Gassendi mentions Arnaud of Provence. 
" Andreas Arnaudus Forcalqueriensis in hac Pro- 
vincia Prosenescallus in libello, cui nomen Joci, 
Apologiam pro Epicuro inter caetera edidit, brevem 
illam quidem, et foliolis paucis ; sed in qua tamen 
ea delibantur ex Laertio praesertim, atque Seneca, 
unde convincatur, quod vir ille pereruditus initio 
proponit, fuisse Epicurum injustius lacessitum, et 
laniatum ab obtrectatoribas." 



ON THE EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHY. 51 

There are several remarks scattered up and 
down both Ccelius Rhodiginus and Alexander ab 
Alexandro, on the doctrines of Epicurus, and the 
character of the Epicureans. Sir William Temple, 
in the second part of his Miscellanea, has an ele- 
gant and ingenious article on the subject of gar- 
dening, written in the year 1685, in which he 
descants upon the gardens of Epicurus, and de- 
fends their owner with considerable address. The 
essay is well worth perusal, both as to its matter, 
and as a specimen of the author's style. 

I shall close the present subject with a cu- 
rious passage from Pliny, from which it appears 
not only that Epicurus was worn on rings and 
engraved on cups, as a family omen of good luck, 
but that " Iidem palaestras athletarum imaginibus, 
et ceromata sua exornant, et vultus Epicuri per 
cubicula gestant, accircumferuntsecum." — Natur. 
Hist. lib. xxxv. 



E 2 



5% 



ON THE ARISTOTELIAN PHILOSOPHY. 



Macrobius gives an account of an author who 
expresses himself thus : "Turn ille : Recte et hoc 
Aristoteles, ut csetera. Nee possum non assentiri 
viro, cujus inventis nee ipsa natura dissentit." — 
Saturn, lib. vii. cap. 6. 

The quantity of Latin and Greek in these pages 
is much to be regretted : because in consequence 
thereof the information will reach but few ladies, 
that the occasion on which this high compliment 
was paid to the infallible philosopher, whom Nature, 
the head of the sex, could not well venture to con- 
tradict, was most honourable to them. As philo- 
sophy was the topic of some of Cicero's dialogues, 
oratory of others, so the subject of the question in 
hand was wine : respecting which Aristotle, it 
seems, had laid down the following dogma ; that 
women get drunk very seldom, but old men very 
often. The name of the gentleman who admitted 
the fact, in consideration of the authority, was 
Disarms : but the very words above quoted inti- 
mate, that he was borne down, not convinced. 
Referring this point to the test of family expe- 
rience, let us look at less hyperbolical testimonials 
to the character of a philosopher, who still exercises 
a considerable, though diminished influence over 
the opinions of the learned and the scientific. But 
as his works are extant to tell their own tale, 



ON THE ARISTOTELIAN PHILOSOPHY, 63 

and as his opinions are before the world, operative 
in themselves, and the subjects of frequent criti- 
cism, not the mere objects of literary curiosity, my 
remarks on them will run into no considerable 
length. 

" Cum omnis ratio diligens disserendi duas ha- 
beat partes ; unam inveniendi, alteram judicandi : 
utriusque princeps, ut mihi quidem videtur, Ari- 
stoteles fiiit." — Ciceron. Topic, cap. 2. 

Casaubon thus expresses his opinion of Aristotle's 
superiority to the Stoics, in the knowledge of logic : 
" Logical peritiam commendat : de qua multum 
se Stoi'ci jactabant : ego pueros puto fuisse, prse 
divino Aristotele : et eorum in hoc genere scripta 
vb\ov xca <pxyvci<pov, prse Aristotelis Organo : quo opere 
omnia mortalium ingenia (divina aut de rebus 
divinis semper excipio:) longe superavit." — In 
Per 'slum , sat. v. lin. 86. 

Rapin has this passage in his Reflections on 
Logic : — II ne parut rien de regie et d'etably sur 
la Logique, devant Aristote. Ce genie si plein 
de raison et d' intelligence, approfondit tellement 
Pabysme de Pesprit humain, qu'il en penetra tous 
les ressors, par la distinction exacte, qu'il fit de 
ses operations. On n'avoit point encore sonde ce 
vaste fond des pensees de Phomme, pour en con- 
noistre la profondeur. Aristote fut le premier, qui 
decouvrit cette nouvelle voye, pour parvenir a la 
science, par Tevidence de la demonstration, et pour 
aller geometriquement a la demonstration, par Pin- 
faillibilite du syllogisme, Pouvrage le plus accom- 
ply, et P effort le plus grand de P esprit humain. 
Voila en abrege Part et la methode de la Logique 
d' Aristote, qui est si seure, qu'on ne peut avoir de 
parfaite certitude dans le raisonnement que par 

e 3 



.54 ON THE ARISTOTELIAN PHILOSOPHY. 

cette methode : laquelle est une regie de penser 
juste, ce qu'il faut penser." — Num. iv. p. 374, 
375. 

That both the Logic and the Physics of Aristotle 
are the productions of an exalted genius, copious 
in invention, and profound in appreciation, is what 
no one will pretend to dispute with his panegyrists : 
but his defects are also so numerous, as to have 
made the emancipation of our schools from his 
dominion a subject of congratulatory joy. He for- 
sook the path of his most eminent predecessors. 
The natural philosophers before him had accounted 
for the changes in the outward form of matter, 
from some new modification of its particles ; but he, 
in his book De Generatione et Corruptione, main- 
tained the doctrine of generation, properly so 
called. He likewise introduced a countless num- 
ber of forms and qualities, distinct from sub- 
stance, which bewildered his followers, and filled 
their mouths with a jargon about entities, and so 
forth, to abolish which, and to substitute the ra- 
tionality of experimental philosophy, required the 
practical good sense of the seventeenth century, 
and such a genius as that of Bacon to give it its 
proper direction. 

In Father Rapin's Comparison of Plato and 
Aristotle, he refers to Baronius's Ecclesiastical An- 
nals of the years 120 and 208, and to the twenty- 
seventh chapter of Eusebius's History, for the fact 
of divine honours paid to this philosopher. 

" Les Carpocratiens furent condamnez pour avoir 
mis l'image de ce Philosophe avec celle de Jesus 
Christ, etpour P avoir adoree par une extravagance 
de zele pour sa doctrine. Les Aetiens furent ex- 
communiez par l'Eglise, et par les Aniens meme, 



ON THE ARISTOTELIAN PHILOSOPHY, 55 

dont iJs estoient sortis : parce qu'ils donnoient a 
leurs disciples les Categories d'Aristote pour Ca- 
techisme. Les Antinomiens allerent jusques a cet 
exces d'impiete, que de porter plus de respect ice 
sage Payen, qu'a la Sagesse increee." — Page 392. 

In another passage of the same work, he finds 
out a curious reason for the strong cry of the first 
reformers against the Peripatetics. " Mais rien 
ne fit plus d'honneur a la doctrine de ce grand 
homme dans le siecle passe, que les invectives 
atroces de Luther, de Melancthon, de Bucer, de 
Calvin, de Postel, de Paul Sarpy, et de tous ceux 
qui ecrivirent alors contre l'Eglise Romaine. Car 
ils ne seplaignent tous d'Aristote que parce que la 
solidite de sa methode donne un grand avantage 
aux Catholiques pour decouvrir les rases et les 
artifices des faux raisonnemens, dont se sert l'he- 
resie pour deguiser le mensonge et detruire la 
verite." — Page 412. Here is an admission on the 
part of the Father, that Aristotle was deposed in 
our schools, and Protestantism (for we must not 
ask him to call it Reformation) established in our 
churches almost simultaneously : he says, because 
Aristotle's method of disputing was formidable to 
innovators : we say, because the rank luxuriance 
of his system overshadowed, choked up, and hin- 
dered the growth of true, healthful, and vital re- 
ligion. 

Suidas makes Aristotle Nature's secretary : — -"On 

' Agi(TTOTe\Yis tyi§ <p6<T£oo§ ygci(j,[j.ciTsv$ i)V, tov Ktx.Xotfj.ov U7ro^gs^cjov 
el$ vovv ov ovfiev 1<tq)$ e%£>jv twv %^c/jx«jv, el xoti Ts^vixooTsgov 

SCTTl X.OU TtSQlTTQTSQOV i^SLgyOCO-fMSVOV, 7ruqaLTEi<T§Ul. 

To his reputation as a teacher during his life- 
time, we have the sanction of Philip's judgment : — 
" Neque vero hoc fugit sapientissimum regem, 

e 4 



56 ON THE ARISTOTELIAN PHILOSOPHY. 

Philippum, qui hunc Alexandro filio doctorem 
accierit, a quo eodem ille et agendi acciperet prae- 
cepta et loquendi." — Cic. de Orat. lib. Hi. 

It was after the residence of Aristotle for three 
years with Hermias, that Philip, king of Macedon, 
made himself master of Thrace, and almost of all 
Greece. Knowing Aristotle's high character, he 
wrote him a very civil letter of invitation, propos- 
ing the office of tutor to his son Alexander, who 
was then about fourteen years old. Aristotle ac- 
cepted the office, and continued for eight years in 
the train of the young prince. The subjects of his 
tuition were, eloquence, natural philosophy, morals, 
politics, and the occult sciences. On this latter 
subject, Plutarch speaks of a private system of 
philosophy, which the professor withheld from all 
but his royal disciple, with respect to whose zeal 
for knowledge, we have the following account : — 
" Alexandro Magno rege inflammato cupidine ani- 
malium naturas noscendi, delegataque hac com- 
mentatione Aristoteli, summo in omni doctrina viro, 
aliquot millia hominum in totius Asiae Graeciaeque 
tractu parere jussa, omnium quos venatus, aucupia, 
piscatusque alebant: quibusque vivaria, armenta, 
alvearia, piscinae, aviaria in cura erant : ne quid 
usquam genitum ignoraretur ab eo : quos percun- 
ctando, quinquaginta ferme volumina ilia prasclara 
de animalibus condidit : quae a me collecta in 
arctum, cum iis quae ignoraverat, quaeso ut legentes 
boni consulant, in universis rerum naturae operibus, 
medioque clarissimi regum omnium desiderio, cura 
nostra breviter peregrinantes." — Plin. l.viii. cap.16. 

Plutarch tells us, that Alexander was angry with 
his preceptor for having published any part of his 
lectures ; and under the influence of such feelings, 



ON THE ARISTOTELIAN PHILOSOPHY. 57 

had paid particular attention to Xenocrates. Aris- 
totle was so highly offended at this, that he became 
a party to Antipater's conspiracy. That blockhead 
Caracalla aped Alexander in every thing, and fan- 
cied himself to be involved in similar destinies. 
He had taken it into his head that Aristotle had 
contributed to Alexander's death, and therefore 
expelled the Peripatetic philosophers from Alexan- 
dria. But the opinion that there was any per- 
manent misunderstanding between the prince and 
the philosopher was entirely unfounded. Alex- 
ander gave no credit to the suggestion of treason ; 
and after Callisthenes's death, and in the full ca- 
reer of victory, he gave Aristotle commission, as 
the above passage of Pliny informs us, to pursue 
the history and philosophy of animals with the 
utmost vigour, and to the greatest extent. " Per- 
secutus est Aristoteles animantium omnium ortus, 
victus, figuras." — Cic. de Fin. lib. v. 

Aristotle's method was diametrically opposite to 
that of Plato and Pythagoras : — " Siquidem, quae 
illi de substantiis intelligibilibus, aut numeris, et 
reliquis hujusmodi dixere, ea Aristoteles ad res 
corporeas transtulit, sensuique subjectas." — Bessar. 
Card, in Calum. lib. ii. cap. 4. Plato's system is, that 
to arrive at the knowledge of things, we must be- 
gin with universals and descend to particulars. 
Aristotle's doctrine is, that from the knowledge of 
particular things addressing the senses, we rise to 
the knowledge of general and immaterial things. 
He lays down the following as an unquestionable 
principle : " Nihil est in intellectu quod non fuerit 
prius in sensu." According to the constitution of 
man, there can be no certainty in our judgment of 
sensible things, by any other criterion than that of 



58 ON THE ARISTOTELIAN PHILOSOPHY. 

the senses. In this position he completely coin- 
cides with the modern experimental philosopher. 
Plato's maxim is, to arrive at the knowledge of 
things by ideas, which are to be considered as their 
originals : Aristotle's is, to arrive at the knowledge 
of them by the effects, which are the expressions 
and the copies of those ideas. The order esta- 
blished by Plato is that of nature, following herself 
out, in a progress from cause to effects : Aristotle's 
order goes to the cause by means of the effect. 
But sense is fallible : for which reason the know- 
ledge of universals, founded on the knowledge of 
particulars, is faulty in principle, and liable to error 
in practice. Aristotle endeavours to find the means 
of rectifying the principle, and rendering it infal- 
lible, by what he calls his universal organ. 

In a book of Cicero before quoted, Aristotle is 
represented as possessing talent so superior to all 
other talents, that few persons can keep pace with 
him. " Quod quidem minime sum admiratus, eum 
philosophum rhetori non esse cognitum, qui ab 
ipsis philosophis, prseter admodum paucos, igno- 
raretur." — Topic, cap. 1. 

The general character of his opinions, making 
allowance for the maze in which all Greek phi- 
losophy was involved, was that of wisdom and 
sound judgment, regularity and solidity, giving 
more satisfaction to the mind than the system either 
of the Stoics or the Epicureans. Altered as are the 
habits of philosophising, there are few rational max- 
ims of which some trace and impression is not to 
be found in him, however encumbered by hard 
terms or obscurity of expression. No person ever 
entertained a higher opinion of human reason, and 
few have carried it so far. A passage has already 



ON THE ARISTOTELIAN PHILOSOPHY. 59 

been quoted from Pliny : he thus mentions him in 
another place : — " Sed idem Aristoteles, vir immen- 
se subtilitatis, qui id ipsum fecit, rationem con- 
vexitatis mundi reddit, qua contrarius Aquilo Africo 
flat." The obscurity with which he is reproached, 
must injustice be partly attributed to his subjects, 
and to the profundity with which he treats them. 
He soars into the clouds, and dives into the deep. 
He aims at developing all the secrets of nature : 
the precipices are his pathway : the ordinary road 
of truth is left to common minds ; and he delights 
to travel where he can have but few companions* 
His writings have more force than elegance ; and 
they certainly are, however pardonably, deficient 
in clearness. This fault is in some measure pro- 
duced by the extreme conciseness of his style ; 
which occasions a constraint and embarrassment in 
his elocution. His manner seems more calculated 
to surprise than to persuade : it would be neces- 
sary, it has been observed, to hear him speak to 
understand his doctrine. An affectation of obscu- 
rity on some occasions conceals what Pythagoras 
concealed under symbols, and Plato under alle- 
gories. This disposition to outrun those whom he 
professes to guide, has been very instrumental in 
undermining his popularity with the moderns : and 
Bacon, in his Essays, accuses him of ostentation : 
but strangely enough, he associates Socrates and 
Galen in the charge. Casaubon, on the contrary, 
in his notes on Laertius, in the same spirit in which 
he panegyrises him in the Commentary on Persius, 
says that none but sophists and rhetoricians, pro- 
verbially superficial, ever speak ill of him. He 
quotes the sentiment of an ancient philosopher to 



60 ON THE ARISTOTELIAN PHILOSOPHY. 

that effect, who says that the criticisms of his cen- 
surers recoil upon themselves. 

With respect to his style, it meets with Cicero's 
approbation in his Brutus. " Quis Aristotele ner- 
vosior, Theophrasto dulcior? Lectitavisse Platonem 
studiose, audivisse etiam Demosthenes dicitur: 
idque apparet ex genere et granditate verborum." 
Rapin thinks he can never say enough on the 
discovery of the syllogism. " Et cette construction 
du syllogisme, qui est la veritable Logique d'Aris- 
tote est si parfaite en son genre, qu'on n'a pu 
depuis y rien aj outer, ny rien diminuer, sans la 
gater. Quand on a le sens droit, on ne peut 
souffrir d' autre maniere de raisonner, ny d'autres 
principes du raisonnement, que ceux d'Aristote. 
Et comme l'on dispute de tout temps contre la 
raison : parce que c'est d' ordinaire P opinion qui 
gouverne le monde : les siecles sensez ne se sont 
distinguez des autres, que par l'estime qu'ils ont 
faite de la Logique d'Aristote." — Reflexions sur 
la Logique, 

Among the moderns who have formed them- 
selves on the ancients Descartes holds a distin- 
guished place. He was one of the first who 
united Geometry with Physics. To exquisite skill 
in the former, he added a strong imagination, 
fertile in new and curious ideas. It is true, he 
raised for himself a superstructure on a sandy 
foundation ; and therefore it did not stand : but at 
all events he performed the service of Samson, in 
pulling down the temple of the Philistines. His 
principles of motion, figure, and extension, were 
nearly the same with those of Democritus and 
Epicurus. An amusing story is told by Rapin, 
that Father Mersene, who was his resident at Paris, 



ON THE ARISTOTELIAN PHILOSOPHY. 6l 

having mentioned one day in a company of learned 
men, that Monsieur Descartes, who had acquired 
a high character in Geometry, was drawing up a 
system of Natural Philosophy, in which he ad- 
mitted a vacuum, the system was ridiculed by 
Robertoul and some others, who prophesied that 
on such a foundation it would come to nothing. 
Father Mersene wrote to him, that a vacuum was 
just then out of fashion at Paris. On this inform- 
ation, Descartes felt himself obliged to change his 
scheme, in conformity with the notions of the Natural 
Philosophers in vogue, for whose support he was a 
candidate, and to admit the plenum of Leucippus. 
" Ainsi l'exclusion du vuide devint par politique 
un de ses principes." To obviate the difficulties 
started by Gassendi, he invented his doctrine of 
subtle matter, which was to suit itself to all the 
solid interstices^ between the larger solid bodies, 
necessarily clogging and interfering with each 
other, unless we allow some fluid, yielding matter 
to give way to the motions of the other. Thus did 
he endeavour in some measure to reconcile the 
two opinions of the plenum and the vacuum : to 
which temporising conduct he was probably in- 
duced, not merely by the ambition of being the 
most fashionable philosopher, but by the strong 
hint given to the learned world in general, in the 
person of Galileo, who was at this time thrown into 
the Inquisition, for asserting the earth's motion. 
The consequence of this complaisance to the taste 
of the age was, that Descartes was not himself 
satisfied with his own after-thought of the plenum 
and subtle matter, and therefore supports it with 
less than his natural power, especially in what 
regarded the principle of motion. Divines have 



6^ ON THE ARISTOTELIAN PHILOSOPHY. 

with much justice objected to his metaphysics, from 
the sceptical tendency they encourage. They are 
set forth in his Meditationes de prima Philosophia. 
In the first of these he propounds the reasons why 
we ought to doubt of all things in general, the 
advantage of which he states to consist in delivering 
us from all kinds of prejudices arising from edu- 
cation and commonly received but unexamined 
impressions ; and even disengaging our minds from 
sense, that we may not any longer doubt of the 
things, which we shall afterwards discover to be 
true. But is it certain that we shall discover these 
truths ? Does he not ask us to give up much more 
than he can satisfactorily engage to replace by his 
system ? His method resembles that of the Pytha- 
goreans, spoken of by Aristotle, who do not so 
much endeavour to assign a reason for the things 
which they explain, as to make every thing bend 
to the principles they have assumed; in like 
manner he seems not to consider his system as 
made to suit the sensible, and therefore we may 
suppose actual constitution of things, but the 
sensible and actual constitution of things as made 
to suit his system. 



63 



CHARACTER OF TIMON THE MISANTHROPE. 



'Avtvoviq$ Se ty)v -gtoAjv hx\i7rcov xou tol§ jxsra toov <plXoov 
tittTQifioLS) otxrjcnv evuXov xoiTSo-xeva^sv uutw vjsq) tyjv <£>ocgov, 
e]g tyjv §a.\cHT<roLV %^a / Gjgo£u\wv xou §<yjy=v uvtoQi <pvya$ 
avQ§w7rciov, xou tov Ti/xwvoj kyamav xou fyXovv (Siov e^txo-xsv, cb$ 
drj 7rs7rov8ob$ opoia* xou yoig oiuto$ adixYi§e)$ vno tyiXoov xui &yoL- 
pKTrri^sis, 8<a touto 7JWJV av0£a>7roj£ a7ncTs7v xou dvo-^egaivsiv, 'O 
8s Tlpcvv y\v 'ASyivouqc, 0$ xou ysyovev YjXixla. [mocXiq-tu xoltoL tov 
IIsAo7rovv>jcnajtov 7ro\sfj,ov 9 <h$ ex toov 'A(>io~TO<ptxvQU$ xou YI\o.t<jovo$* 
dgafxurctiv Aa£s7v i<rnv. KoopaoS siren yoig Iv hxslvois th$ Ivq-^svyjs 
xou [AiQ-a.vQgcu7ro$' kxx\ivoov Se xou dioo§o6fj.evo$ ukolq-olv evTevfyv, 
'Akxi&iadYiv v'tov ovtol xou Qgutrbv y)o~7tix^sto xou xoiTe$l\ei noo- 
$v(xco;, ' Attyi^ccvtov Se §av[Aao-oiVTO$ } xou nvSopevov tyjv out'iuv, 
<p<As7v f<p>j tov vsctvl<rxov, eiSa>$ on -sroAAwv 'A§Y)VCiloi$ xaxwv 
a"iTio$ so-oito. Tov ds 'Attyj^oivtov \lovov, cb$ oy,oiov uvtco xou £>j- 
Xovvtol ty)v diothav, sVnv ots GJgoo-lsTO' xou 7tots ty^ toov yo&v f 
ovq-y}$ kogTr);, elcrnwvro xu§ 3 avTOvg oi duo. Tov ft ' At;y\[lolvtov <p>j- 
<TavTQ$ } '£1$ xaKov, co Tlpwv, to o-u^oo-iov rj^cov \ ETys cru, stprj, 
f/,Y) nugYis, AkyzTou ds y 'A^YjVOiicov kxx\Y}cnoi£dvToov, avoL^ac, stt\ to 
ffifjux 7toiy]o-ou cnco7r>jv xou Trgo&fioxlccv fj.sya.KYiv $ioi to v7oigo&o%QV 
sItcc s'nrsiv, 'Eot* /xoi pixpov olxonedov, w olv$ge$ 'ASyivouqi, xou 
q-vxyi ti$ Iv olvtco izstpvxsv, I£ i)$ *J§>j <rw)(yo\ twv 'CtoAjtwv ounY]y- 
gavTO. fteAAwv ovv olxofopelv tov tottov, s%ov\y)§Y]V Svj/xoo-/« 
Tzposnreiv "vol olv oigot tivs$ ISsAaxnv vpuiv, 7ro)v \xxot:y\vou ty)v 

(TVXYjV) OLTTOLyZcOVTOU. TsKsVTYjO-OiVTOg $£ CIVTOV XUi TOl<psVT0$ r ' 'AA>J(r< 

-sja^a ty]v $uku<ro-o<.v, a>Mo~§s to, 'UJgouyovra tov ouyiuKov* xou to 

* The comic writer of that name. 

f This feast took place on the second or middle day of the 
Anthesteria. 



64 CHARACTER OF 

rov Ttxfov* 7 Hv 8* e7riysygu[j,fj,svQV 9 

Tovvopa. $' ou ■crsucrojcrSs, xctxol $s xctxw$ omoXourSs. 

Ka) tovto [asv avrov tri tpovra. vrs7roiY)xsv>xi Xsyov<rt, to §s 
zreg^spofxevoVj K«AAijxap^s<ov lorn, 

TifLoov pio~(xv$goQ7rog evoixsw aXXa. ixugsXSs, 
OIpw^siv s)7r<x$ -sroXXa, vrugsXSs povov, 

Tuvtu fih 7J7=g\ TlpoQvog onto vroXXcov oXlyot. 

Plutafchus. 

The character of Timon derives its principal in- 
terest from Shakspeare's adoption. The question 
of Shakspeare's learning is set at rest by Dr. Far- 
mer's conclusive essay on the subject, equally 
satisfactory as a curious collection of facts, and a 
model of argumentative criticism. He certainly 
did not understand the Greek language ; but there 
was already an English Plutarch, from which he 
versified closely in all his dramas connected with 
ancient history. Painter had also described Timon 
as " a manhater, of a strange and beastly nature," 
in his Palace of Pleasure ; but the cause of his 
misanthropy is not assign ed f Shakspeare has 
described the cause as well as the effect : and has 
evidently taken his hint from the beginning of the 
passage above quoted, where the temporary feel- 
ings of Antony furnish Plutarch with the only 
ground for introducing anecdotes of Timon at 
all. Dr. Farmer conjectures, from a passage in 
an old play, called Jack Drum's Entertainment, 
or Pasquil and Katherine, of the year 1601, that 
Timon was not new to the stage. Mr. Steevens 
thinks the allusion in a single line, and that by way 



TIMON THE MTSANTHKOPE. C)5 

of comparison, might with as much probability 
refer to Plutarch or the Palace of Pleasure. But 
Mr. Strutt, the engraver and antiquary, was pos- 
sessed of a manuscript play on the subject, written, 
or at least transcribed, about the year 1600, pro- 
bably a year before Jack Drum's Entertainment, 
and ten years before Timon of Athens. The 
passage on which Dr. Farmer forms his conjecture 
might refer to this play : but it is immaterial ; as 
there are much stronger grounds for supposing 
that Mr. Strutt* s play was not unknown to Shak- 
speare. Of this there is a very curious evidence 
in the second banquet-scene. The last line of it, 
and of the third Act, is this : — 

One day he gives us diamonds, next day stones. 

Now in the second scene of the first Act, he had 
requested the first Lord to " advance this jewel," 
to prefer it ; to raise it to honour by wearing it. 
But at the second banquet, he had thrown no 
stones at his guests ; he had only thrown warm 
water in their faces, arid empty dishes at their 
heads. In the parallel scene of the more ancient 
drama, there is no warm water : but painted 
stones, resembling artichokes, form a part of his 
entertainment. There can therefore be little doubt, 
that Shakspeare intended to adopt that incident, 
but forgot it in the carelessness of composition : 
in closing the scene, he recollected it ; and without 
troubling himself to look whether he had inserted 
it or not, he took it for granted he had made Timon 
fling the artichokes with their dishes, and without 
any propriety made the fourth Lord mention those 
missiles in antithesis with the former jewels. 



66 CHARACTER OY 

There is another circumstance which increases 
the probability of his being acquainted with this 
play, or with some other English story besides 
those of Plutarch and Painter. There are several 
incidents in Timon of Athens, evidently originating 
with Lucian : but that admirable dialogue, the 
delight of the classical reader, had not been put 
into an English dress at the period in question. 
I shall give a passage or two of Lucian, as a speci- 
men of his humour. The reception of Philiades 
and Demea, after they were aware that he was pos- 
sessed of great sums of gold which he had dug up 
in the woods* is paralleled by his treatment of 
the Poet, the Painter, and the Senators, which 
winds up his character in Shakspeare : — 

TI. Tig o3ro g icTiv 6 T&goo-iwv 9 6 avx<pa\txvTicig ; <I>/A*ad\)c, 
xoXuxw cnraVToov 6 ffisKugwruTog. ovTog 8e -crap' hfiou ay gov 
oKov Aa6e«v, xc£i tJ SuyctTp) vrgoixoi l6o tolKolvtol, fuo-Qov tou 

gffOllvQU, 07T0TS UQ~CLVT01}1*S S 'UTOLVTWV &iCti7Ta)VT00Vy jU,0V0.£ U7re£S7T)JV£0-eV, 

I7roaoo"«/Asvoj wtiixwregov elvui ra>v xuxvooVj InztioLv vqgouvtol 
tsqviYp elU pi, xa) 'srgoo-yikQov Inixouglotg faopevog, ^K^yotg 6 
yivvuiog vrpo<revereive» 

*PI. *£2 rris avoLnrxyvrloLs ! Nov Tifxcavu yvwgt^eTs; vuv 
TvaQtevifys $%•&% xai (rup,7roT)js y roiyugouv Uxouot •E7£7rov0EV ourog 
ctyugHTTog aav. 'Hpeig Se ol txccXcli ^uvyQeig xou Zwetp-q&Qi, xot) 
t^OTOu, Ofioog p&TpKxtyfASV, d)$ fir) £7r<7r»jSav $oxwft.ev* XaT^g, a> 
Zka-TTOroL' xou owing fm$ (jLictgoug rouroug xoXaxug quXufy, roug 

S7T4 TYl$ TgaTTztflg [JLOVOV? TO. CtWot $£ XOgOlXCUV Ovhh ^lOi^SgOVTOig* 
QUX STl 'aTKTTSVTSOt TWV VUV QuSsVl* TSUVTZg CtyJwKTXOl^ XOt) 'STOVYjgoL 

*Eyw he raXuvrov <roi xa^i^oov^ <hg £%0'S zrgog rot xtxTsnelyovTct 
XgYio-Qou, xu&\ ohov y)§y] htXyio-Igv rixoucra ag -gj-Aoutoojs uitep^eye^ 
rivet i&Xoutov. Uxoo roiyagouv rauTot ere vov$sty}o-cqv xol'itoi <tu 
ye outu) (TOtphg tov, ouhlv 'urwg Ssyjq-y} rwv map epou Xoyoov, og xot) 
rap Ns<TT0gi to §£ov 'urctponvsosiag olv, TI. v Eorai raOYa, a) 
epiXictfy. HA^v aAAa tsrgotnh 9 d>g xou <re <pi\o$gQVY}<TO{ioti TJjf 



TIMON THE MISANTHROPE. 6j 

StxeXXjj. 4>I. "AvOgetinoi, Ka.rsa.ya tou xpaviou biro too a^aglo-rou, 
hori to, o-vprfsgovra hovQsrovv UVTOV. 

There is much wit in the decree which Demea 
brings making him out a conqueror at the Olym- 
pic games ; and when Timon says that he never 
was there, the sycophant says, Well ! but you will 
be there. The decree then makes him fight against 
the Peloponnesians ; to which he again makes the 
following slight objection of impossibility, notwith- 
standing which the decree proceeds in all solemnity 
and magnificence, to detail the honours voted to 
him. The decree itself affords a specimen of an 
Athenian parliamentary address : — 

TI. Ylwg ; dia yag to /x>j ep^eiv oitKct, ovds Tsgoeyga^v kv 
rco xaTaXoyco. AH. Mergia ra i&sp) o~avrou \eyei$* YjfjLsl; 
a^agicrroi av el^^sv afj.VY)ix,QvovvTs$. ii 'Eri Ss xa\ ^Yj^i&f^UTBt 
ypaQoov, xa\ o-v^ovksuoov, xa\ <rrgaTY]ycuv, ou pxpa dbQetyo-E tjjv 
'urokiv 'Ext to6toi$ aizao'i SeSoxrai t>} GovXy, xa) tco &Jju,«>, xa\ 
tyj 'Hhiala. xara <pv\a$, ko) to"i§ typoi; »§/«, xa» xojvrj -craa-*, 
%gu<rovv a.vao-TYj<rai rov Tlpcova. zjagci tyjv 'A0>jvav Iv t»j axgo- 
7ro\si, xegavvov sv ry §£%ia e^ovra, yea) axrivas hii\ t>] xstyaXy 
xa\ (TTeQotvobcrou aurov %pv<roi$ <TTe<pavoig sWa* xa) uvaxygv- 
xQyvai tov; o~Ts<pavou$ TYj^egov Aiowo~loig rgaycp$o~i$ xaivolg* 
ay^vai yag %C aurov 8s* r^zgov Ta Aiov6o~ioc. Et7rs tyjv 
yvw^v Aypeas 6 pyroog o-vyyevyg avrov, ay^ia-rsv; xa) ^aflrjT^ 
aurov coy. Kca yag pyrwg agicrog 6 T/jou-ov, xa) ra ak\a txavra 
bitoo~a av edeXo*. 

The character of Timon in Shakspeare is gra- 
dually and finely developed. In the outset he is 
the munificent patron, and the accomplished cour- 
tier, the model of condescension and generosity s 
with a fashionable air of affected modesty ; — 

O, by no means, 
Honest Ventidius : you mistake my love; 

F2 



68 CHARACTER OF 

I gave it freely ever; and there's none 

Can truly say, he gives, if he receives : 

If our betters play at that game, we must not dare 

To imitate them ; Faults that are rich, are fair. 

But what he has already given is not sufficient 
for the occasion. He fancies he could deal out 
cards, and distribute kingdoms without grudging 
them : — 

I take all and your several visitations 
So kind to heart, 'tis not enough to give ; 
Methinks, I could deal kingdoms to my friends, 
And ne'er be weary. — Alcibiades, 
Thou art a soldier, therefore seldom rich, 
It comes in charity to thee : for all thy living 
Is 'mongst the dead ; and all the lands thou hast 
Lie in a pitch'd field. 

The usual consequences of even virtuous pro- 
fusion have befallen Timon. He is beggared 
through want of prudence. But he takes comfort 
to himself from the reflection, that his ruin was 
not occasioned by the pursuit of guilty pleasures: — 

Come, sermon me no further : 
No villainous bounty yet hath pass'd my heart; 
Unwisely, not ignobly, have I given. 
Why dost thou weep ? Canst thou the conscience lack, 
To think I shall lack friends ? Secure thy heart ; 
If I would broach the vessels of my love, 
And try the argument of hearts by borrowing, 
Men, and men's fortunes, could I frankly use, 
As I can bid thee speak. 

The limits of an essay will not allow us to follow 
all the gradations of character j having selected 



TIMON THE MISANTHROPE. 69 

the traits most at variance with the ultimate 
misanthropy, but leading through self-culpatory 
reflections on the past, with a strong hope resting 
on a favourable opinion of human nature, founded 
on the careless observation of a person too noble 
and too splendid to sift narrowly, and again dis- 
appointed in that liberal construction, we must 
follow Timon to the woods : — 

blessed breeding sun, draw from the earth 
Rotten humidity : below thy sister's orb 

Infect the air ! Twinn'd brothers of one womb, — 

Whose procreation, residence and birth, 

Scarce is dividant, — touch them with several fortunes ; 

The greater scorns the lesser : Not nature, 

To whom all sores lay siege, can bear great fortune, 

But by contempt of nature. 

Raise me this beggar, and deny't that lord ; 

The senator shall bear contempt hereditary, 

The beggar native honour. 

It is the pasture lards the brother's sides, 

The want that makes him lean. Who dares, who dares, 

In purity of manhood stand upright, 

And say, This ?nan's a flatterer? if one be, 

So are they all ; for every grize of fortune 

Is smooth'd by that below: the learned pate 

Ducks to the golden fool : all is oblique ; 

There's nothing level in our cursed natures, 

But direct villainy. Therefore, be abhorr'd 

All feasts, societies, and throngs of men ! 

His semblance, yea, himself, Timon disdains : 

Destruction fang mankind ! — Earth, yield me roots 1 

{digging. 
Who seeks for better of thee, sauce his palate 
With thy most operant poison ! What is here ? 
Gold ? yellow, glittering, precious gold ? No, gods, 

1 am no idle votarist. Roots, you clear heavens ! 
Thus much of this will make black, white; foul, fair; 

f3 



70 CHARACTER OF 

Wrong, right ; base, noble ; old, young ; coward, valiant. 
Ha, you gods ! Why this ? What this, you gods ? Why 

this 
Will lug your priests and servants from your sides; 
Pluck stout men's pillows from below their heads : 
This yellow slave 

Will knit and break religions ; bless the accurs'd ; 
Make the hoar leprosy ador'd ; place thieves, 
And give them title, knee, and approbation, 
With senators on the bench : this is it, 
That makes the wappen'd widow wed again ; 
She, whom the spital-house, and ulcerous sores 
Would cast the gorge at, this embalms and spices 
To the April day again. Come, damned earth, 
Thou common whore of mankind, that put'st odds 
Among the rout of nations, I will make thee 
Do thy right nature. — [march afar off"] — Ha ! a drum ? 

— Thou'rt quick, 
But yet I'll bury thee : Thou'lt go, strong thief, 
When gouty keepers of thee cannot stand : — 
Nay, stay thou out for earnest. [keeping some gold. 

It has been observed that Plutarch gave the 
tone to our author's delineation of the character. 
The old translation of Plutarch's Life of Antony 
furnished him with a learned term, as well as with 
an anecdote in relation to Alcibiades, which he has 
ingeniously adapted to his purpose in the present 
scene : — 

I am misanthropos, and hate mankind. 
For thy part, I do wish thou wert a dog, 
That I might love thee something. 

The following answer to Alcibiades's question 
is in Shakspeare's best style : — 



TIMON THE MISANTHROPE. 7* 

That, 

By killing villains, thou wast born to conquer 

My country. 

Put up thy gold ; Go on, — here's gold, — go on ; 

Be as a planetary plague, when Jove 

Will o'er some high-vic'd city hang his poison 

In the sick air : Let not thy sword skip one : 

Pity not honour'd age for his white beard, 

He's an usurer : Strike me the counterfeit matron ;- 

It is her habit only that is honest r 

Let not the virgin's cheek 

Make soft thy trenchant sword : spare not the babe, 

Whose dimpled smiles from fools exhaust their mercy, 

But mince it sans remorse : Swear against objects ; 

Put armour on thine ears, and on thine eyes ; 

Whose proof, nor yells of mothers, maids, nor babes, 

Nor sight of priests in holy vestments bleeding, 

Shall pierce a jot. There's gold to pay thy soldiers ; 

Make large confusion , and, thy fury spent, 

Confounded be thyself! Speak not, fee gong*. 

His curses upon Phrynia and Timandra are 
coarse, but full of that pithy expression, in which 
our elder poets gave themselves full scope. The 
moderns have gained much in delicacy, but lost 
much in force, and in that caustic satire and 
reprehension, which makes vice wince instead of 
tickling it. After the departure of Alcibiades and 
his beagles, Timon bursts out into the following 
angry soliloquy : — 

That nature being sick of man's unkindness. 
Should yet be hungry ! — Common mother, thou, 

{digging. 
Whose womb un measurable, and infinite breast, 
Teems, and feeds all ; whose self-same mettle, 
Whereof thy proud child, arrogant man, is puff'd, 
Engenders the black toad, and adder blue, 

F 4 



7% CHARACTER OF 

The gilded newt, and eyeless venom'd worm ; 
Yield him, who all thy human sons doth hate, 
From forth thy plenteous bosom, one poor root ! 
Ensear thy fertile and conceptious womb, 
Let it no more bring out ingrateful man ! 
Go great with tigers, dragons, wolves, and bears ; 
Teem with new monsters, whom thy upward face 
Hath to the marbled mansion all above 
Never presented !.-— O, a root, — Dear thanks ! 
Dry up thy marrows, vines, and plough-torn leas ; 
Whereof ingrateful man, with liquorish draughts, 
And morsels unctuous, greases his pure mind, 
That from it all consideration slips ! 

Timon's seventy to Apemantus is bitter beyond 
all bitterness, as Dr. Johnson expresses it. He 
had not virtue enough for the vices he condemns. 
We may add, that with a deep insight into human 
nature, our author makes Timon apologise for 
himself at the expense of his brother Cynic, by a 
proud reference to his own early fortunes, which 
shows that though he outwardly professed con- 
tempt of mankind, he had an inward feeling that 
it was necessary to his satisfaction, to stand as 
well in public estimation and in his own, as his 
nature and circumstances would permit. The 
speech is in the entire spirit of aristocracy, show- 
ing itself naturally in unnatural, at least unusual 
circumstances : — 

Not by his breath, that is more miserable. 

Thou art a slave, whom Fortune's tender arm 

With favour never clasp'd ; but bred a dog. 

Hadst thou, like us, from our first swath, proceeded 

The sweet degrees that this brief world affords 

To such as may the passive drugs of it 

Freely command, thou would'st have plung'd thyself 



TIMON THE MISANTHROPE. J3 

In general riot ; melted clown thy youth 

In different beds of lust ; and never learn'd 

The icy precepts of respect, but follow'd 

The sugar'd game before thee. But myself, 

Who had the world as my confectionary ; 

The mouths, the tongues, the eyes, and hearts of men 

At duty, more than I could frame employment : 

That numberless upon me stuck, as leaves 

Do on the oak, have with one winter's brush 

Fell from their boughs, and left me open, bare 

For every storm that blows ; — I, to bear this, 

That never knew but better, is some burden : 

Thy nature did commence in sufferance, time 

Hath made thee hard in't. Why should'st thou hate men ? 

They never flatter'd thee : What hast thou given ? 

If thou wilt curse, — thy father, that poor rag, 

Must be thy subject ; who, in spite, put stuff 

To some she beggar, and compounded thee, 

Poor rogue hereditary. Hence ! be gone ! — 

If thou hadst not been born the worst of men, 

Thou hadst been a knave, and flatterer. 

The tirade against the thieves bears considerable 
resemblance to Albumazar ; and there has been 
much contest among the critics for the right 
of eldership between the two : — 

Nor on the beasts themselves, the birds, and fishes; 

You must eat men. Yet thanks I must you con, 

That you are thieves profess'd ; that you work not 

In holier shapes: for there is boundless theft 

In limited professions. Rascal thieves, 

Here's gold : Go, suck the subtle blood of the grape, 

Till the high fever seeth your blood to froth, 

And so 'scape hanging : trust not the physician ; 

His antidotes are poison, and he slays 

More than you rob : take wealth and lives together; 

Do villainy, do, since you profess to do't, 



74 CHARACTER OF 

Like workmen. I'll example you with thievery r 
The sun's a thief, and with his great attraction 
Robs the vast sea : the moon's an arrant thief, 
And her pale fire she snatches from the sun : 
The sea's a thief, whose liquid surge resolves 
The moon into salt tears : the earth's a thie£ 
That feeds and breeds by a composture stole 
From general excrement : each thing's a thief, 
The laws, your curb and whip, in their rough power 
Have uncheck'd theft. Love not yourselves ; away : 
Rob one another. There's more gold : Cut throats ; 
All that you meet are thieves : To Athens, go, 
Break open shops ; nothing can you steal, 
But thieves do lose it : Steal not less, for this 
I give you ; and gold confound you howsoever ! 
Amen. [Timon retires to his cave. 

The momentary approach to reconciliation with 
mankind, to softness and composure, on expe- 
riencing the kindness and fidelity of his steward, 
is happily shaded off from the frenzy into which 
he had been driven, by the baseness and ingra- 
titude of the world : — 

Had I a steward so true, so just, and now 

So comfortable? It almost turns 

My dangerous nature wild. Let me behold 

Thy face. Surely, this man was born of woman. — 

Forgive my general and exceptless rashness, 

You perpetual-sober gods ! I do proclaim 

One honest man, — mistake me not, — but one; 

No more, I pray, — and he is a steward. — 

How fain would I have hated all mankind, 

And thou redeem'st thyself: But all, save thee, 

I fell with curses. 

Methinks, thou art more honest now, than wise ; 

For, by oppressing and betraying me, 

Thou might'st have sooner got another service : 






TJMON THE MISANTHROPE. 75 

For many so arrive at second masters, 

Upon their first lord's neck. But tell me true, 

(For I must ever doubt, though ne'er so sure,) 

Is not thy kindness subtle, covetous, 

If not an usuring kindness ; and as rich men deal gifts, 

Expecting in return twenty for one ? 

The scene with the Poet and the Painter has 
been already mentioned as parallel with Lucian. 
It closes thus : — 

You that way, and you this, but two in company : — 
Each man apart, all single and alone, ' 
Yet an arch-villain keeps him company. 
If, where thou art, two villains shall not be, 

[to the Painter. 
Come not near him.— If thou would'st not reside 

[to the Poet. 
But where one villain is, then him abandon. — 
Hence ! pack ! there's gold, ye came for gold, ye slaves : 
You have done work for me, there's payment : Hence ! 
You are an alchymist, make gold of that : — 
Out, rascal dogs ! [exit, beating and driving them out. 

In the following speech, Shakspeare alludes to 
the grounds for Timon's half friendship for Alci- 
biades, as laid down in the anecdote related by 
Plutarch : — 

Well, sir, I will ; therefore I will, sir ; Thus, — 

If Alcibiades kill my countrymen, 

Let Alcibiades know this of Timon, 

That — Timon cares not. But if he sack fair Athens, 

And take our goodly aged men by the beards, 

Giving our holy virgins to the stain 

Of contumelious, beastly, mad-brain'd war ; 

Then, let him know, — and tell him, Timon speaks it, 

In pity of our aged, and our youth, 



76 CHARACTER OF 

I cannot choose but tell him, that — I care not, 
And let him tak't at worst ; for their knives care not, 
While you have throats to answer : for myself, 
There's not a whittle in the unruly camp, 
But I do prize it at my love, before 
The reverend'st throat in Athens. So I leave you 
To the protection of the prosperous gods, 
As thieves to keepers. 

Had Shakspeare been a classical scholar, we 
should have been told that he had borrowed this 
last expression from the Medea of Euripides, 
where the expression Gs£v *Mi$ powugwv is the style 
given to the men of Athens. 

In the following passage he seems to have 
borrowed from himself, and to have recollected the 
soliloquy in Hamlet, written at least ten years 
before Timon of Athens. Here also he might 
have been suspected of having copied an image 
of Prometheus in ^Eschylus : — 

Avtr^sl^sgov ye ixekocyo$ ocTYipug &y>j£. 

The whole speech is not unlike part of the Ana- 
paests, spoken by Io, in the same play : — 

Tgo^o^ivsiToa 8' o^jaafl' kXlydyv, 

rivsUjU-otTi fjjtgyoo, yXoocra^g ux.ga.TY}$' 
Qo\ego\ Is \6yoi, 'uraloxxr sItcyj 
^TvyvY\$ ?vgo$ x6[A<x<riv ar>j^. 

Commend me to them ; 
And tell them, that, to ease them of their griefs. 
Their fears of hostile strokes, their aches, losses, 
Their pangs of love, with other incident throes 






TIMON THE MISANTHROPE. 77 

That nature's fragile vessel doth sustain 

In life's uncertain voyage, I will some kindness do them i 

I'll teach them to prevent wild Alcibiades' wrath. 

Mr. Kemble would here have had to maintain a 
second warfare with the gallery, on the subject of 
aches and akes. That the galleries should have 
combated his correct pronunciation, was naturally 
to be expected : but marvellous to relate, persons 
who from their education and rank in life would 
be offended at a hint of ignorance or want of cri- 
tical judgment, have sided with the mob against 
metre and known usage. They seem to suppose 
that the English language, perhaps the most fluc- 
tuating of all, has been always stationary, and its 
immediate modes immemorial ! Will they have the 
goodness to try if they can read the third line of 
the last quotation any way but one, and retain the 
verse upon the tongue ? 

Having incidentally mentioned the name of Mr. 
Kemble, I cannot help expressing my regret, that 
Timon was never added to the list of Shakspeare's 
characters, of which he was for so many years the 
best commentator and illustrator. One such living 
exposition is worth all the notes that were ever 
written. Various and opposite opinions have been 
entertained, respecting the comparative merits of 
Kemble and Garrick. Those who are not old 
enough to remember the latter, and the number 
who do remember him will soon be very small, 
cannot arbitrate between the combatants. We 
have heard much of Garrick's eye and brow ; of 
his expressive lip, and fine tones. The testimony 
is as strong as to any historical fact, and we have 
as much reason to believe it, that he had a power 



78 CHARACTER OF 

of expressing the passions incident to the character 
he represented, and consequently a dominion over 
the feelings of his audience, never exceeded by 
predecessor or contemporary, and probably not 
surpassed by any successor. But there is one 
ground, which Mr. Kemble occupied alone : that 
of the philosophical and moral actor. His scholar- 
ship, and a Roman cast of person, peculiarly fitted 
him for Coriolanus and Cato ; and would have en- 
abled him to re-embody and re-animate the Grecian 
misanthrope. Besides these, there was a cast of 
character which Garrick seemed to think beneath 
him ; for the theatrical records show that it was then 
consigned to performers of the second class. But 
who has seen Mr. Kemble represent the melancholy 
and philosophical Jaques, or attended on the moral 
lessons of the disguised Duke in Measure for Mea- 
sure, without rational pleasure and real improve- 
ment? In this respect, however, I know of no 
dramatic experiment so hazardous, and of no suc- 
cess so decisive and triumphant, as that of the 
modern play called Deaf and Dumb. In this, a 
highly gifted member of Mr. Kemble's family * 
not only made dumbness eloquent, but recom- 
mended a most important institution of charity, by 
showing its mode of relief without occasioning the 
disgust usually attendant on the exhibition of any 
natural defect ; and at the same time proved the 
triumph of a fine and cultivated mind over the 
most hopeless of infirmities : while he himself made 
an old grey-headed clergyman preach such a ser- 
mon, as drew crowded congregations night after 

* Mrs. C. Kemble, at that time Miss De Camp. 



TIM ON THE MISANTHROPE. 79 

night, and rendered the benches of the theatre 
auxiliary to the pews of the church. 

Those who remember Mr. Kemble with a pleas- 
ing regret, may imagine how he would have wound 
up the character in the delivery of the closing 
speech : — 

Come not to me again : but say to Athens, 
Timon hath made his everlasting mansion 
Upon the beached verge of the salt flood ; 
Whom once a day with his embossed froth 
The turbulent surge shall cover; thither come, 
And let my grave-stone be your oracle. — 
Lips, let sour words go by, and language end : 
What is amiss, plague and infection mend ! 
Graves only be men's works ; and death, their gain ! 
Sun, hide thy beams ! Timon hath done his reign. 

After this, Timon appears no more, and here the 
play had better end. 

This play was altered by Shadwell, and restored 
to the stage in 1 678. Travellers have mentioned 
that there were the ruins of a building near Athens, 
which was designated as Timon's Tower. 

Dr. Johnson's criticism on this play seems cold, 
and parsimonious of praise. " The play of Timon 
is a domestick tragedy, and therefore strongly fas- 
tens on the attention of the reader." I cannot 
think that its domestic nature constitutes its charm. 
It is in subjects of deep pathos, that domestic tra- 
gedy seizes on the feelings of the spectator. I 
should rather attribute its interest to the pecu- 
liarities of mind it exhibits, and the studies of hu- 
man nature it furnishes. " In the plan there is 
not much art, but the incidents are natural, and 
the characters various and exact." The moral it 



80 CHARACTER OF TIMON THE MISANTHROPE. 

enforces is justly stated by the critic, and cannot 
be mistaken by the spectator or the reader. " The 
catastrophe affords a very powerful warning against 
that ostentatious liberality, which scatters bounty, 
but confers no benefits, and buys flattery, but not 
friendship." 

Callimachus continues Timon's misanthropy even 
after death, in the following epigram : — 

T/jowov (ou yag tr £0~o~i) tl toi <p<xo$, r\ <txoto$ fySgov ; 
To <ntQTO$* vpewv yoig ?&Xslov£$ e!v 'AfSjj. 



81 



CHARACTER OF APEMANTU& 



Little has descended to us from antiquity re- 
specting this person. He is most known by the 
mention made of him in the passage from Plutarch 
at the head of the last article. He is there stated 
to have been the only man admitted to intimacy 
with Timon after the latter had contracted his mis- 
anthropical habits. Yet sympathy of feeling and 
manners did not prevent Timon from being at 
times crusty, as it is called, with his friend : wit- 
ness the compliment which passed at the feast of 
sacrifices for the dead. Apemantus could not 
simply remark that the dinner was good, without 
being taken up, and told that his presence spoiled 
it. The inducement for mentioning a personage 
with whom we have such slender acquaintance, is 
to show the skill of Shakspeare in discriminating it 
from a character of so much general similarity as 
that of Timon. Plutarch tells us that they asso- 
ciated from sympathy of feeling and of manners : 
had that sympathy been entire, Shakspeare would 
not have introduced a polygraphic copy of his own 
picture. But one was the misanthrope of expe- 
rience and bitter disappointment : the other was 
the misanthrope of Cynic philosophy. One was 
the hatred of feeling \ the other of pride and af- 
fectation. 



82 CHARACTER OF APEMANTUS. 

Warburton says, that this character of a Cynic 
is finely drawn by Lucian, in his Auction of the 
Philosophers, and that Shakspeare has copied it 
well. There appears to be a want of exactness in 
this remark. We have before seen that Shakspeare 
could only have copied Lucian at second or third 
hand, as that witty writer had not been translated 
in his time. " This character of a Cynic" would 
justify the reader in inferring, that Lucian had 
drawn Apemantus : he has indeed drawn the Cynic 
in glowing colours \ but the sitter is Diogenes, not 
Apemantus. The observation, however, is not 
substantially objectionable. Shakspeare had pro- 
bably met with the draft of a Cynic, borrowed 
from Lucian, either anonymous or under the name 
of Diogenes ; and finding that Apemantus was the 
companion of Timon, justly concluded that " the 
knight of the shire might represent them all;" the 
disciple of the sect might inherit the mantle of his 
master. It might not improbably be supposed, 
that he found this outline in Mr. Strutt's manu- 
script play : but it is not so. The persona? dra- 
matis have Philargurus, a covetous churlish old 
man ; but no Apemantus, a churlish philosopher. 

A single specimen of Apemantus is all that our 
limits will allow : — 

Hey day, what a sweep of vanity comes this way ! 

They dance ! they are mad women. 

Like madness is the glory of this life, 

As this pomp shows to a little oil, and root. 

We make ourselves fools, to disport ourselves ; 

And spend our flatteries, to drink those men, 

Upon whose age we void it up again, 

With poisonous spite, and envy. Who lives, that's not 

Depraved, or depraves ? who dies, that bears 



CHARACTER OF APEMANTUS. 83 

Not one spurn to their graves of their friend's gift ? 
I should fear, those, that dance before me now, 
Would one day stamp upon me : It has been done ; 
Men shut their doors against a setting sun. 

This anathema against dancing might have sub- 
jected our poet to the charge of classical plagiarism, 
had his means of reading been sufficiently extensive 
to support it. Cicero, in his Oration for Murena, 
seems to look at this exercise with puritanical ab- 
horrence. " Nemo enim fere saltat sobrius, nisi 
forte insanit : neque in solitudine, neque in con- 
vivio moderato atque honesto." 



g 2 



84 



CHARACTER OF ALCIBIADE& 



Alcibiades Furnishes an important and curious 
study of human nature. Splendour oi' birth and 
personal beauty seem to have been the two circum- 
stances, which gave his character its form and 
pressure. He was nearly related to Pericles ; but 
by what tie, is disputed among authors. Suidas 
says, he was the son of Clinias and Pericles's sister. 
Valerius Maxim us calls Pericles his uncle ; but 
Plutarch tells us he was the son of Dinomache, the 
daughter of Megacles. Whatever was the relation- 
ship, Alcibiades was brought up under the guar- 
dianship, and in the house of Pericles. 

In Isocrates, there is an oration, De Bigis, pro- 
fessing to be delivered by the son of Alcibiades, 
containing a defence and panegyric of his father. 
He there enters into a long genealogical deduction : 

Kai to rsXsuTOiiov 'AAxt£/a§>jf, xct) K\ei<r§evris, 6 ft-ev vrgbg tscl- 
Tgbg, 6 ds GTgbg pjrgo$ oov -urgOTtcnrTros tou &ccTgb$ toujxow, or^a- 
TY)yYi<rotVTss f t% <pvy*is xctTyyotyov tov $>)ju,ov, xu) tov$ rvguvvovg 
!£e£aXov, xou Kcuri^crav Ixe/vyjv ty}V fypoxgctTlotv, l£ rj$ of TzoTCncti 
iffgos [xh otvSpiotv ovroog £7raj&su3>j(rav, axrrs tou$ fictqGagovg tov$ 
em Tzucruv hxSovTctg tyjv 'EAAa&x, y*6voi vixctv iAct%0fj,£V0i» He 

then goes on to state that Alcibiades' s father and 
his own grandfather fell in the battle of Cheronea. 

'ETnTgOTreuSij $e U7ro Uegixhsovg, ov vtuvtss «v 6/x.oAoy^craisv cog 

GOtypgOVSGTCtTOVy XOLl tilXCllOTUTOV, X.OLI (TO^OOTUTOV ysySVYl<T§Ctl TWV 

'syoXiTwv. It appears clearly in Herodotus, that Clinias 



CHARACTER OF ALCIB1ADES. 85 

was the son of the Alcibiades meant in the first 
passage of Isocrates, and father of the Alcibiades 
whose fame was afterwards so celebrated in Greece. 

Tmv 8e 'EXX^vcov xoltol tccuty\v tyjv ^e^v yglo-rswoiv 'A&ji/aTo*, 

xa* 'Afyvotlwv Ktemfc 6 'Abxifao&m. Plutarch censures 
Pericles for negligence in his office of guardian ; 
for he appointed Zopyrus, an old Thracian slave of 
obstinate temper, to be his schoolmaster.* All the 
ancients concur in admiration of his extraordinary 
comeliness. Plutarch says, ov yu%, &$ Evgmfow i\eys, 

tco-vtoov twv xctXwv xca to [/.ST07ru)gov xctXov Icrnv, but that the 

figure of Alcibiades retained its attractive character, 
through the advantage of a naturally vigorous and 
healthy temperament. 

On the subject of his lisping, Plutarch quotes 
a passage from the Vespae of Aristophanes : — 

Trj 8e pctivrf xoti tyjv Tg«oXoT*jTa h[V7rgetyai XzyovGi, xcti tw 
KolXw 7n$avoT»]Ta -Era^acr^sTv, %ag<v £7nT£Aou<rav. ju,£ju,v>jtou ds xca 
*AgivTO<poiwi$ uutou tyjs TgauAoT>jTO£ Iv ol$ £7rio~xw7TT£i 0eoogov y 

EIt 'AXxi£ia&>js elire 7rgb$ ju,e TgauAicras, 
c OA«5 0ectfXov ; tjjv xeQotXYjV xokaxog *X Si ' 
'OgQa>$ ye tout 'AXxi/3iaS»jj sTgotuXios* 

Kat "Agxinwos tov vlov tqv 'AXw&a&ou o-xwrrcov, 

BaS/?si, fypi, haxzyX^iy $oipa,Tiov ehxwy, ovsos typghs ™ 
7r*Tg\ ptx\i$-u So'Jeiev e»va<, 

K\aVO-CCU^SVBUSTCik T£ XOU TgOLVXt&TUh 

Cicero begins a letter to Caelius with a similar 
ridicule of fashionable affectation, where he spells 
the name of Hirrus, Cselius's competitor for the 
aedileship, according to the lisping pronunciation. 

• Alcibiades's early partiality for Homer is well known. 
G 3 



86 CHARACTER OF ALCIBIADES. 

" Non enim possum adduci, ut abs te, postea 
quam eedilis es factus, nullas putem datas : prae- 
sertim cum esset tanta res, tantse gratulationis \ 
de te, quia quod sperabam : dein Hillo, balbus 
enim sum, quod non putaram." 

Aristotle, De Republica, discusses the advantages 
and disadvantages of music in the education of 

boys. Uoregov os osi fcavSavsw gcvtovs afovTtx$ re xct) X sl §" 
ovgyovvTag, r\ pj, xaSuneg Yjisjogr}^ tzrgOTsgov, vvv Xsxrsov. — — 

Lib. viii. In the course of the chapter, Aristotle 
represents Minerva as rinding a flute and throwing 
it away. Alcibiades had supported his own juve- 
nile resolution against learning the flute, by a 
reference to the same anecdote, fifty years before 
Aristotle ; and his ridicule was the means of con- 
fining musical accomplishment among gentlemen 
to the lyre. Plutarch introduces him : — AuAsnwav 

ovVj e^ij, Qyifltxloov ncttief ov yug 1<rct<ri SictXeyecrScti. yj[x1v $e 
roig 'ASyimiois, w$ ol TXovTSQsg Xeyovonv, agyrfyirig 'ASijva xou 
'UTUTgwos 'AttoAAgov Ictt/v tbv r; ph eppifye tov avXov, 6 os xcti 
tov olvXyityjv IJeSs^e. 

Xenophon, in the first book of his Memorabilia, 
introduces a conversation between Antipho and 
Socrates, thus : — "Agiov U uvtou, xaJ 3. >&go$ 'Avtkpwvtu 

rbv co(pi(rT)jv SieXe^rj, py vrctgGtXnrsiv, 'O yug 'Avn^cov 7tot£ 
fiovXopevos robg crvvovQ~iao~ToL$ oturou TragsXeoSai, xugotrsK^wv tw 

l^CJQXgtXTSl, VTOLgOVTOQV OLVTOOV, sAe^S T«8s* CO ^aiXgtXTSS, hyw [X,EV 

Wjxvjv rov§ (pi\oo-o<povvTixs svfioafjiOveo'Tsgoug ^gyvou yiyvsoSou* Ol) 
£e y,o\ ooxsls TOLVOLVTict t% o~o<pla$ ccujoXsXuvxsvai. oOCrateS 

of course throws his antagonist on his back after 
his usual manner, concluding that to want nothing 
is the condition of a God, and to want next to 
nothing the state of humanity nearest to that con- 
dition. 

Whether this be the Antipho, held up to ridicule 
by Plato in his Menexenus, is uncertain : the an- 



CHARACTER OF ALCIBIADES. 87 

cients themselves have not agreed on the point. 
But the sophist mentioned by Xenophon was cer- 
tainly the personal enemy of Alcibiades, and wrote 
defamatory invectives against him ; so that it is 
not improbable, some of the most disreputable 
stories extant may be libels. Athengeus, Deipno- 
soph., lib. xii. cap. 5. quotes an ill-natured speech 
of Antipho, respecting the motive of his going to 
Abydos. Plutarch does ample justice to the sin- 
cere and honourable friendship of Socrates, and 
the discrimination of Alcibiades, in preferring the 
wise philosopher to all the flatterers and vota- 
ries of pleasure by whom he was surrounded : — 

OuSsv yoxg r\ tu^y\ -uTsgiscr^sv s%oo§sv xou vrsgistygox^s to1$ Ae- 
yo[/,svoi$ otyoc§ol$ tovovtov, «W utqootqv V7rh Qr\Q<ro<plus ysvsoSou, 
xou Xoyoig cc7rg6<TiT0v ■&ccf>pYi<rl<xv xou lv\yn,Qv sp^oucnv, o<roi§ 'AAxi- 
GhxSyis svSvs I£ ctgxys SgWTTTOfAsvos xou ouroxXslopzvot; Ono twv 
vsgoc, x*$ iV ^o[m\o6vtodv al<roixou(rou tov vovSstquvtos xou ttou- 

§eV0VT0$ 9 Q[M0$ V7T Z\)$\)'iot$ kyVOOgiOS ^,00XpaT^ XOU VTgOdyXCtTO, 

hacry^MV tov$ / sj\ovo~lovg xou sv$o%ou$ kga<rTa$. Totyy b'e , sroj>)<ra^evo£ 
<rWYi§Y}, xou Xoyoov axovo-ocs ov% y$qvy\v avotvdgov sgotfov §Yigeuov1o$, 
ouSs <p»Avj/xa7«;i/ xou ty&v<recios vrgocroulovvlos, o\XX* ekeyxpvlos to 
<r<xdgov t% ^X^ &VT0U, xou 7rie%ovv1os rov xevov xou ocv6r)rov 

"Enfyf aXexloog dovXov a>$ xXivoi$ / ur1sgov. 

His frolic at Anytus's supper party is related by 
Plutarch without any mention of Thrasyllus, the 
only circumstance which can plead any apology for 
it. Athenseus introduces it thus : — 'E^ix^ua-ug ll 

-CTole w§ "Avvlov, sgcts-YiV ov7a, xou •urXovrtov, rvvsTrmcapotlZflvlos uutoo 
rcov halgcov kvog QgouruXXov, (roov •sreviJTWV 8' oOros vjv) vygQ7ricbv 
too Sgxo~vXXco to\ ^i(rr] twv noTYiploov twv £7n too xvXixsioo izgoxsi- 
[xsvoov, exeXsvQ-a tov$ axoXovSovs otvrofegew vrgog tov GgctvuXXov 

gld' OVTW <pi\0<pgQVYl<TU[JL£VOC TOV "AwIqV OCSTYlXXoi(rs1o. JDOCS 

G 4 



88 CHARACTER OF ALCIBIADES. 

not this remind the reader of Lord Byron ? Would 
he not have been likely to administer poetical 
justice, in contempt of legal, much after the same 
manner ? 

The next anecdote given by Plutarch is much 
to the credit of Alcibiades. It relates to «vdg»*rov, 

to$ <pu<riv, ou 'croXXoi xexlr\fx,evov 9 aGrolopevov he tskyla.^ xod to 
cwayplv el$ excxlov ^oOir^goic, tw 'A\xi£itx$r) vrgoo'tps'govlot, xoc) 

foopsvov xaSeiv. Alcibiades took him under his pro- 
tection, and made him outbid the old farmers of 
the revenue. 

The character of an arrogant and dissipated 
young nobleman was likely to fall under the lash 
of so severe and impartial a historian as Thu- 
cydides. In the 15th chapter of the 8th book, he 
ascribes his ill-will and intrigues against Nicias to 

the following motive : — 'Evrjye Se fir^oSvplrara tyjv 

fgctlslav 'AXxj&a&rjj 6 Kkeivlov, pov\o[xevo$ tw re Nix/a Ivav- 
tiovgScii, oov xocl e$ tu txKKct hu^oqog rot uroAtfixa, xtxi cri aurow 
tiiot&oXcos lj(/,v;q<F$*), xui pcx\t?ct ?gotlYiyri<rctl re eTTi^v^Siv, xoc) 
kXusl^uiV ^ixeKiotv re oY ocvtov xoc) Kotg^Yjdova \fye<r§txr xoc) roc 
T&a apoc svtu^<toc; 9 yjg^ocai re xoc) I6%y cb^eX^asiv, Further 

on, Thucydides, who weighs men's probable mo- 
tives in a nicely poised scale, gives Alcibiades, 
in a supposed speech to the Lacedemonians, an 
opportunity of assigning an honourable motive for 
abandoning the cause of his country, and enlisting 
under opposite banners : — 'E^si a>$ ye Swodoc, xoc) 06% 

a^ocgi^cred^oci oljxai yvcop^, tjrocvv Stzgcra)' xoc) %elgwv ov$ev) CC%lCO 
Zoxelv V(jlwv elvoci, el tv; Ipavlov \Le\o\ tcov tTToKe^icoiocTcov, $1X0x0X1$ 
-crole loxoov ehoci, vvv eyxgoclcZg e&eg^OfAoir ov$e vtztottI ^eveoS oil jxou 

els t^v Qvyo&ixYjv 'srgo^v^ltxv tov \6yov» He ascribes his 
conduct to the wickedness of his enemies. 

The following anecdote proves beyond all ques- 
tion the strong attachment of this gay youth to 



CHARACTER OF ALCIBIADES. 89 

his philosophical friend. After the defeat of the 
Athenians at the battle of Delium, Socrates was 
retreating on foot : Alcibiades brought him safe 
out of the field, in spite of the enemy who pressed 
furiously forward, and made a very considerable 
slaughter. 

A speech of Andocides against Alcibiades is 
preserved in the Oratores Graeci of Aldus, and the 
Oratores Veteres of Stephens, in which both his 
public and private character are virulently at- 
tacked. * 

Plato has two dialogues between Socrates and 
Alcibiades ; one, De Natura Hominis, the other 
De Voto. Socrates, as usual, drives his pupil into 
a corner. The oratory of Alcibiades has been much 
commended by the ancients; but even with them, 
though the fact be highly probable, the report seems 
to be little more than that of common fame. The 
speeches of Thucydides are admirable as charac- 
teristic illustrations ; but they are not parliament- 
ary reports. 

Alcibiades was, like other statesmen, a New- 
market man. He won the first, second, and third 
prizes in person; his chariots won twice in his 
absence. He is said to have put Eupolis to death 
for writing a satire against him ; in which is sup- 
posed to have been the verse quoted by Aulus 
Gellius : — " Eupolidis quoque versus de id genus 
hominibus consignatissime factus est, XaAeTv agw$, 
ctivvoLTuyrotTos Ksyeiv : quod Sallustius noster imitari 
volens, loquax y inquit, magis, quam facundus" 



* The excellent edition of the Oratores Attici by Bekker, 
from the Clarendon Press, 1823, supersedes the necessity of 
any other, except to the professed collector. 



90 CHARACTER OF ALCIBIADES. 

Eupolis, a native of Athens, is honourably men- 
tioned by Quinctilian and by Horace, who both 
rank him with Aristophanes and Cratinus. His 
fragments are scattered up and down in many 
ancient authors, and have been collected by 
Grotius. 

Alcibiades and Phaeax are accused of having bor- 
rowed the consecrated plate, and having refused to 
return it, after profaning it by secular uses, till the 
eve of the sacred processions in which it was to be 
exhibited. The object of this retention is alleged 
to be, that strangers might consider it as a private 
loan. * Phseax is likewise mentioned by Thucydi- 

des, lib. V. Cap. 4. : — <&ulug §s 6 'Egcx<rirguTOV, TgiTog avT0$ t 
'ASyvuloov 'urs^irovTCJOV, voaxri luo Is TraA/av xa) ^ixs\lctv 
'Gtqso'GsvIyis u-sxo tov olutov xgovov s%S7rksvo~s. 

Nicias and Alcibiades, though not always the 
most sincere friends, leagued together to turn the 
tables on Hyperbolus, who had levelled a sentence 
of ostracism against either one of them, or Phaeax. 
This Hyperbolus was the constant butt of the 
comic writers, and especially of Plato. He is 
mentioned by Plutarch in the Lives of Alcibiades, 
Aristides, and Nicias. 

The best apology that can be made for the 
treason of Alcibiades to his country, which no 
injuries can ever justify, is the hospitality, subsist- 

* f, I2v xcii tov 'AA?ci£ja§vjv eGrrflicovlo, xa» aura. vnFoXa^otvovleg 
ol puXifoi too 'AAxi/3taS>5 a^o^svoi, e^'UTO^obv ovti <r<plcriv auTolg 
{/,}} tov bypov fis£txloog 'urgosfoivcn, aui vofj.lo-oiv1s$, s\ uvtov s^sXol- 
(THUVf 'urgooTOi cxv slvcu, sfj.sya.Kwov, kou k&ooov chg hiri drj^ov 
xcxiaXvcrsi toi ts /xyfi?ca xou >} tcov 'Egpwv vrsgixovrY) ysvoflo* xoti 
ouSev e'Aj cxvtcov o, ti ou [xst sxslvou s^gu^y STnKsyovlsg tsk^yj^iu, 
tyjv aAA>jv avTov sg to. htmlYifisupctla. qv 8>j]ao7<?c^v -cragavo^/av. — 
Thucyd. lib. vi. cap. 28. 



CHARACTER OF ALCIBIADES. 91 

ing anciently on so curious a footing, between his 
family and the Lacedemonians. In consideration 
of this tie, he had taken particular care of the 
prisoners captured at Pylos. Yet in this act he 
was thwarted, and his jealousy roused by the 
ascendency of Nicias, who had procured peace 
and the consequent liberty of the captives ; so 
that he eclipsed Alcibiades in popularity both at 
home and abroad. The jealous feeling towards 
Nicias has been touched upon before : it found 
vent when the Lacedemonians had formed an 
alliance with the Boeotians, and had delivered 
Panactus to the Athenians with dismantled forti- 
fications. Alcibiades seized on this opportunity to 
inflame the minds of his countrymen, and to 
involve Nicias in a portion of the current odium. 
The intrigue by which he supplanted Nicias in the 
confidence of the Lacedemonians, is thus de- 
veloped by Thucydides : — 

Kal Xsyovlsc sv t>j floury v?sgl ts tqutwv, xou <hc avToxguTOgsc 
rjxov<ri 'uregi vruvloov ^v^yjvui twv dioupogoov, tov ' AKxi^iccZy^v e<p6£ovv, 
fxv) xct), r\V sc tov 8>j/aov TotvTct Xsyoixnv, sixoLytxywvlai to zj\y)§oc, 
xcti Gi7T(]Q0~§Yi rj 'Agyslctiv ^uyy/xyid' y^ycLvarou ds vrgbg uutovc 
roiovSe Ti 6 'AXxifiio&Yic- tovc AoLXsScupovlove ivefoei, mlc-iv olvtoIc 
§ovc, yv (j,Yj 6yo\oyY}o~ct)o-iv sv tco typoo ctvloxgccTogsc vjxsiv, YlvXov ts 
avTolc catoo s oQvsw. vrslosiv yccg uvtoc 'A§r}va!ov$ coo-vtsq xou wv 
uvliXsysiv, xou tolXKol £uvaAAa£ejv. fiovkoysvos §s olvtovc Nix/dii 
ts a-cropjo-aj, tuvtol sTrgdlrs, xou 07tco$ sv too hrjyoo SiaoaXcov uvtovc 
coc ovfisv oCkf^sc sv vco syovo~iv } ov$e ksyovo~iv qv^sttots toluIol, tovc 
'Agyslovc xou 'Hksiovg xou MavTivsae. ^v^yocyovg Groi^o-v}. xou 
sysvslo ovtcjoc, s7rs^Y} yo\g k$ tov Srj^ov G70if>s\§dv1sc 9 xou sttsooq- 
Tuoysvoi ovx s$uvav (ooo~7rsg sv tyi /3ouA>j) ccvTOxpuTOgsc rjxsw, ol 
'ASyjvouoi ovxsti rpslyovlo' olKKoX tow 'Ahxt^iufov •uroKKoo yaWov 
yj mpoTsgov xotlotGooovloc twv Aaxs^ouyovicov, so~yjxov6v ts xou eTOipoi 
Yicruv evSvc uTupayctyov1e$ Tobc'Agysiovc, xou tovc ysT-oivlcvv, jju/x- 



92 CHARACTER OF ALCIBIADES. 

l^ocyovg -arotstcrSa/. <rei<r[A,ov Ss y=vofxsvov mplv ti £7nxwpo;$>jva», 
v) exx\Yi<rl<x oivty} avs£A)j$>j. 

Tjj 8' vfspotlct sxx\yi<tigi 6 Nix/a$, xotivrep twv Acixsticapovloov 
uvtcov r)7rotir}[Aevoov } xoc) civto$ s^Yi7ral^svos vrsp) tov ^y) uvtq- 
xpoLTOge$ 6jU,oAoy>jo-ai yxsiv, opoo$ toI$ Actxe$ctiy,ovlois s<p>j %0>jva» 
<p/Aou$ fLuWov ylyvs<r§cti, xcc) ItTiuyov'lcx.^ tc\ ijjpoc, *Apyelov$, tve^ou 
en cb§ ccvTOvg, xoc) si8svai o, ri 8javoo0v7ar Xeycav, Iv pev too o~<Qz- 
Tsgw xaAw, ev 8s too exslvoov cnvpsire~i 9 tov vrokspov otvuGuWsoSui. 
<t<Qiq~i f/,ev ydg sv Ij-cotow toov ijTPCty[j,txTWV 9 tb$ s7wr\ei?ov 0.01501/ 
eivou hoLQ-(iiQ~U7^oLi ty)v tVTrpccylotv sxslvoi§ 8s $VfV%ovcriv } OTila^g-oc 
evpyjfjLa eivcti 8jaxiv8uvsuVa<. S7rs/(rs ts 'GTSfx^fui TZ-gso-Gsig, oov xai 
auTog y]v, xs\s6o-ov1ct; Aaxe8a»jU,ov/ou£, sTri 8/xaiov 8iavoouv7at, ITa- 
vaxlov ts opSov a7ro8<8ovat, xot) * A^'ntoKiV xa» tyjv Boioolcvv %V[A- 
(xu^ccv uveivoti, r)v y,Y) h$ to\§ crxovbois eo~lwo~i } xaSaVso skPYjIo, avsu 
aX\r)\v}V ju->j8sv» £u|U,£a/vsiv. Siwsiv Ti hxekevov, OTk xa) <7<ps»£, si 
i^oyXov7o a8<xs»v, >j8») av 'Apys/ous fu^a^ouj -srsTrojija-Sar wj 
VTctgsivul y avTOug uvtov tovtou svsxa. sTts t» uKKo evexctXovv, 
i&OLvltx ei&ifel\uvle$, a.7TE7rs(/,$/civ tov$ TaTEq) tov- Ntx»av wpso-fiei$, 
xx) cctpixopevctiv uvtcov, xa» StTruyysiXuvTtoV tu ts- a.X\ct } xct) 
rsXo$ eI&ovIw, oti el pt) ty)v £ujU,/x,ap£iav &vv\<rowi BoieoToi? pi) 
etnownv h$ t&$ a-7rov8aj, i&oir)(rov1cti xcc) ccvto) 'Agyelov$ 9 xcc) tov§ 
/xst* aur&wv, %o\L\La.yovv ty)v jasv %o\L\L&y[ccv ol Accxslcckpovm Bojw- 
to7$ oux e<pacrav avYjcrsiv, emxgcclovvloov t&v cts^i tov zevagr) tov 
"Epogov Tat/Ta y»yvso-$a», xa» ocroi aAXoi t^j aui% yvy)\vt\c, \<tolv. 
Tovs 8s ogxov$ } 8soju,svou Nix/ou, avsvsc«(rav7o« s^Jo^sjto yap ^ 
CTav7a arsXij e^wv a7rsAd>], xai 8<a/3A>j3J (oweg x«i eys'vs7o), 
aTnoj 8oxwv slvai twv nrgos Aaxs8«i/xoviouj o-7rov8wv. ava%w^- 
<rav7o^ ts aOVoD, wj vjxowruv ol 'A$>j vato* ou8sv sx t>J5 Aaxs8a/ju.ovoj 
-CTSOTPayjUrSVoy, su^u^ 8/ o^y% tiyov xcu vopltyvles a8jxs7<r$aj, 
etvX 0V y<* P 'BMgo'vJzS °* 'Agyeloi, xcti ol ^u^ciyoiy 'vFoigetyety6vlr<s 
'AAx*£*a8ou, e7roiYio-<xv1o <T7rov8«s xa* Ju^ap^/av ^005 at5T0i»f 
T^v8s. 

The remark of Plutarch on this precious, 
roguery is well worth attention : — Rat tov /xsv rgoVov 

©u8s)f Ty$ TBoot^mc, hnyvsi, jasya 8' y\v to mzTtpaypevov ww' auTOv, 



CHARACTER OF ALCIBIADES, 93 

dtag-^<rcn xu) xgotbavai I\zXot:qvv^(tov oklyov Seiv anetGrav, xa) 
TOG-otuTotg cLWKilas sv r^sgot jU,ia wg£» Mtxvlivsiav otv1iTa%ai Aaxe- 
dcufxovloig, xa» vroppcoltxrco rwv 'A^va/cov uywvcc xalao-xguacraj xal 
x/v8uvov aVTois, h a> jxs'ya ju,ev ouSsv fj v(x>) OTgoo-g'drjxg xga7q<ra<nv, 
s\ 8* i(T(paA>3(rav, ggyov rjv ty\v Aaxc8a»/xova -C7g^y=vecr^a<. lhe 

consequence was the battle of Mantinea, in which 
the Athenians were beaten without adding much 
to the confidence or to the resources of the Lace- 
demonians. 

The web of Alcibiades's policy was curiously 

Wrought : \AAxjj3ia8>j£ yoig, ots ocTrysi Ix ty\c *gxw ?&jj jxeloc- 

rois h Mscnjvvj, JuvsiSco^ to jxIxxov. — Thitcyd. lib. vi. cap. 
66. Without any genuine and rational patriotism, 
he was continually stirring up the young men of 
Athens to aim at the empire, not only of the sea 
but of the land ; and reminding them of the oath 
they had taken in the temple of Aglauros. Attica 
was a barren tract ; and they had sworn to con- 
sider any country as their own, which abounded 
in corn, wine, and oil. 

Among the military effeminacies of Alcibiades, 
was that of carrying a shield of gold in the wars, 
with the ensign, a Cupid bearing a thunderbolt, 
instead of the owl, or the olive, or Minerva herself; 
the usual and recognised devices of the Athe- 
nians. 

Demosthenes, in his oration against Midias, speaks 
with mingled praise and censure of Alcibiades : — 

Asys7a* rolvuv mols sv rr\ WAsj, xa7a Tyv vrctkcciolv ixs/vqv su&ai- 
/xov/av, 'AXxi&a&rjs yevsoScti, a> o"xs\|/a(r3s, rlvwv susgyso-ioov vnug- 
you<rctiV, xa* vrolwv tivwv 'crgog rov Sijjxov, -cra^ s^gYjo-av^ vpwv ol 
■ Txgoyovoi) g7rs»^ fifo\vgb$ xa» vGgifVjs caslo fah slvccr xat otix, 
£7mxaa"ai Syjtvqv Meidlotv 'AAxj&a&jj /3ouAo|xevo?, toutou pey,VYi[Juxt 
toO \6yov. 



94. CHARACTER OF ALCIBIADES. 

The slaughter of all the adult males among the 
Melians, a crime unlike those generally committed 
by Alcibiades, is stated by Plutarch to have taken 
place under a decree promoted by him. But 
Thucydides, who gives an account of the affair 
with the Melians, ending in this nefarious trans- 
action, in the last three sections of his fifth book, 
neither mentions such decree, nor names Alci- 
biades. It has been suggested that he wished to 
have the carnage thought the effect of a sudden 
transport of the soldiery, and not a deliberate act 
of cruelty on the part of the Athenians. If so, 
what becomes of the severely impartial historian ? 
He certainly gets over the massacre as fast as he 
can, in a single sentence ; but had there been 
such a decree, and Alcibiades its promoter, it 
would have been unlike his usual proceeding to 
have suppressed the fact. Melos was one of the 
Cyclades, and a Lacedemonian colony. That 
Alcibiades was the officer who blockaded it, is true. 
His force amounted to thirty-six ships, and three 
thousand men. He could not take the island till 
the second year, after he had received a reinforce- 
ment under Philocrates. It but too often hap- 
pened in ancient times, that troops were exas- 
perated by being detained long at a siege, and 
committed ravages which their officers were unable 
to prevent. Effeminacy, and the violation of public 
decency, are offences of more probable imputation. 

On this subject Athenaeus relates an anecdote, 
immediately preceding that of Anytus and Thra- 
syllus, in a chapter before quoted : — 'A<pnopevos 8' 

'A$Yivr)<riv l|f 'OXujX7r/a^ $60 wlvaxas avefyxev, ' Ay\uo<pa>vlo$ ygct- 
<p>jv cov 6 jx£.v £*%sv 'OAv/X7na§a ku\ HvSictdct s-e$otvou<roi$ avrbv 
h ds Sulegco Ns^la ?v xa$*jjuiv*j, x«» «r* twv yovajwv <%ut>j$ 'AA- 



CHARACTER OF ALCIBIADES. 95 

xifiio&Yji;) JcctXXioov <pciw6}it,£V0$ rwv yvvaixeloov TZQO&vmctiV. 1 his 

Aglaophon was the father of Polygnotus. He is 
mentioned in good company by Cicero, De Orat. 
iii. 7. : — « Una est ars ratioque picture, dissimil- 
limique tamen inter se Zeuxis, Aglaophon, Apelles : 
neque eorum quisquam est, eui quidquam in arte 
sua deesse videatur." 

Ambition showed itself under contrasted forms 
in Alcibiades and his guardian Pericles : in the 
former, headstrong, inconsiderate, and personal ; 
in the latter, prudent, statesman-like, and patriotic. 
Pericles knew the lust of conquest to be the na- 
tional error of the Athenians ; and his authority 
was always exerted to restrain its extravagance. 
He died in the third year of the Peloponnesian 
war. During his lifetime, they had felt a longing 
desire to mix themselves up with the divisions of 
the Sicilians ; but when the check of his disappro- 
bation was removed, they aimed at the conquest of 
the island, and banished two of their generals and 
fined a third, for not having effected it. Alci- 
biades lent himself to these lofty notions, and with 
an imprudence the reverse of his guardian's policy, 
suggested the entire occupation of the island, in- 
stead of that gradual conquest which only they 
had hitherto meditated. * But Socrates was warned 
by that genius, who was fabled to have waited on 
him, and, fable apart, is true wisdom, that this 
career would not be ultimately successful. Meton 



* Mr. Mitford, I find on consulting him since I wrote this pas- 
sage, does not consider the project of Alcibiades as so im- 
prudent ; but, on the contrary, speaks of it as " extensively 
founded.'' I do not dispute so high an authority, but as there 
is historical warrant in the expressed opinions of Socrates and 
Meton, I have allowed the passage to stand. 



96 CHARACTER OF ALCIBIADES. 

the astronomer read no favourable destiny in the 
stars, and wished to exempt his son from the 
hazards of the campaign. He affected madness, 
set his house on fire, and conveniently recovering 
his senses, petitioned the people to let his son stay 
at home to comfort him. Nicias also opposed a 
wise and cautious policy to the arrogance and im- 
petuous rashness of his opponent. But violence 
carried its point against counsel and experience. 
The arguments on both sides are so admirably 
constructed by Thucydides, in speeches which 
he probably framed from traditionary heads or 
remnants of their respective harangues, that I 
should insert them but for their extreme length : 
I will therefore give them as condensed by that 
excellent historian of Greece, Mr. Mitford : — 

" To urge to Athenian tempers," Nicias said, 
" that in reason they should rather take measures 
to secure what they alreddy possess, than ingage in 
wild projects for farther acquisition, I fear will be 
vain ; yet I think it my duty to endevor to show 
you how rash and unadvised your present purpose 
is. Within Greece you seem to imagine yourselves 
at peace : yet some of the most powerful states, 
of the confederacy with which you have been at 
war, have not yet acceded to the treaty, and some 
of the articles are still controverted by all. In 
short, it is not a peace, but meerly a dubious sus- 
pension of hostilities, prolonged by ten-day truces, 
which will hold only till some misfortune befal us, 
or till Lacedaemon give the word for war. At the 
same time your antient subjects, the Chalcidians of 
Thrace, have been years in a rebellion which they 
are still maintaining ; and some others, whom you 
esteem dependent states, pay you but a precarious 



CHARACTER OF ALCIBIADES. 97 

obedience. Is it not then extreme impolicy to 
incur needlessly new and great dangers, with the 
view to increase a dominion alreddy so insecure ? 

" As to the dominion which Syracuse may ac- 
quire in Sicily, which some desire to represent as 
highly alarming, far from an object of apprehen- 
sion, it would rather give us security. For while 
Sicily is divided, each state will court the favor of 
the Lacedaemonians, who profess themselves the 
protectors of independency ; but when once the 
Syracusans are masters of all, they will be less 
forward in connection with Lacedeemon, and more 
cautious of opposing the Athenians ; whose cause 
is similar to theirs, and whose interest congenial. 

" For myself," continued Nicias, " at my years, 
and after the long course of services in which my 
fellowcitizens have been witnesses of my conduct, 
I may venture to say that no man is less anxious 
for his personal safety. I have large property, 
through which my welfare is intimately connected 
with that of the commonwealth. But we owe both 
life and fortune to our country ; and I hold that 
man to be a good citizen who is duly careful of 
both. If then there is among you a young man, 
born to great wealth and splendid situation, whose 
passion for distinction has nevertheless led him far 
to exceed, in magnificence, both what suited his 
means and what became his situation ; if he is 
now appointed to a command above his years, but 
with which, at his years especially, a man is likely 
to be delighted; above all, if repairs are wanting 
to a wasted fortune, which may make such a com- 
mand desirable to him, tho ruinous to his country, 
it behooves you to beware how you accede to the 
advice of such a counsellor. I dread indeed the 

H 



98 CHARACTER OF ALGIBIADES. 

warm passions of that crowd of youths, the follow- 
ers and supporters of the person of whom I speak : 
and notwithstanding the decree of the last assem- 
bly, all men of sober judgement ought yet to inter- 
fere, and prevent rash undertakings, of a magnitude 
that may involve, with their failure, the downfall 
of the commonwealth. If therefore, honored as I 
am, by the voice of my country, with appointment 
to the chief command of the intended expedition, 
I may presume to advise, it shall be, that the 
expedition be not undertaken ; that the Sicilians 
be left still divided by their seas from Athens ; 
that the Egestans, as without communication witli 
Athens they ingaged in war with the Selinuntines, 
so, without our interference they accommodate 
their differences ; and that, in future, the Athe- 
nians ingage in no alliances with states which, in 
their own distress, will claim assistance, but in the 
distress of Athens could afford none." 

Alcibiades, thus particularly called upon, mounted 
the bema to reply. He began with insisting upon 
his just pretension to the high command to which 
he was raised, and with glorying in the extra- 
vagances of which he was accused. " My ances- 
tors before me," he said, " have been honored for 
that very conduct which is now imputed to me as 
criminal. I own, and it is my boast, that I have 
exceeded them all in magnificence, and I claim 
merit with my country for it. The supposition 
had gained, throughout Greece, that Athens was 
ruined by the war. I have shown that an indi- 
vidual of Athens could yet outdo what any prince 
or state had ever done. I sent seven chariots to 
the Olympian festival, and gained the first, the 
second, and the fourth prizes: and the figure I 



CHARACTER OF ALCIBIADES. 99 

maintained throughout, at that meeting of the 
whole Greek nation, did not disparage the splen- 
dor of my victory. Is this a crime? On the 
contrary, it is held honorable by the customs of 
Greece, and reflects honor and renown, even on 
the country of those who exhibit such magnificence. 
With regard then to my extravagance, as it has 
been called, at home, whether in public entertain- 
ments or in whatever else, perhaps I may have 
drawn on me the envy of some of our own citi- 
zens : but strangers are more just ; and in my 
liberality and hospitality they admire the greatness 
of the commonwealth. 

" If then even in these things, comparatively 
meer private concerns, I have deserved well of my 
country, let it be inquired what my public con- 
duct has been. Glory, I will own, I ardently 
desire ; but how have I sought to acquire it, and 
what has been my success ? Have I promoted 
rash enterprize? Have I been forward, as it is 
said youth is apt to be, to ingage the common- 
wealth, wildly and without foresight, in hazardous 
war? or was it I who, by negotiation, without 
either danger or expence to yourselves, brought all 
Peloponnesus to fight your battles for you against 
Lacedaemon, and reduced that long-dreaded rival 
state to risk its existence at Mantineia, in arms 
against its own antient allies ? If such have been 
my services, on first entering upon public business, 
you need not, I hope, fear but my greater expe- 
rience wil] now be advanta geous to you. 

" With regard then to Nicias, who has long 
and honorably served you in the high situation 
of general of the commonwealth, tho he has been 
expressing himself acrimoniously against me, I 

h 2 



100 CHARACTER OF ALCIBIADES. 

reddily acknowledge his merit, and have no objec- 
tion to serve with him : on the contrary, I think 
it would become your wisdom to employ us toge- 
ther. Nicias has the reputation of cautious pru- 
dence, and singular good fortune; I am said to 
be more than prudently enterprizing. For want 
of enterprize his wisdom, and the good fortune 
with which the gods have been accustomed to 
bless it, will be unavailing to the commonwealth : 
checked by his prudence, my disposition to enter- 
prize cannot be dangerous. 

" To come then to the question more imme- 
diately before the assembly, the opportunity now 
offered to the commonwealth, for acquisition in 
Sicily, ought not to be neglected. The power of 
the Sicilians, which some would teach you to fear, 
has been much exaggerated. They are a mixed 
people, little attached to one another, little at- 
tached to a country which they consider as scarcely 
theirs, and little disposed to risk either person or 
fortune for it ; but always reddy for any change, 
whether of political connection, or of local estab- 
lishment, that may offer any advantage, or relieve 
from any distress. Nor is their military force 
such as some have pretended ; several Grecian 
states and all the barbarians of the iland, will be 
immediately in your interest. Distracted then by 
faction, as it is well known the rest are, negotiation, 
well managed, may soon bring more to your party. 

" But it is endevored to alarm you with appre- 
hensions of invasion from Peloponnesus. With 
regard to this, late experience has demonstrated 
what may suffice us to know. The Peloponnesians 
are always able to overrun the open country of 
Attica even when none of our force is absent on 



CHARACTER OF ALCIBIADESi 101 

forein service ; and, should the expedition now 
proposed take place, they can do no more. Ought 
we then to abandon allies, whom treaties ratified 
by oath bind us to protect ? Is it a just reason for 
so failing in our ingagements, that those allies are 
unable to afford us mutual protection? It was 
surely not to obtain Egestan forces for the defence 
of Attica that the treaty was made ; but to pre- 
vent our enemies in Sicily from injuring Attica, 
by finding them employment within their own 
iland. It has been by readiness to assist all, 
whether Greeks or barbarians, that our empire, 
and all empire, has been acquired. Nor, let 
me add, is it now in our choice how far we will 
stretch our command ; for, possessing empire, we 
must maintain it, and rather extend than permit 
any diminution of it ; or we shall, more even than 
weaker states, risk our own subjection to a forein 
dominion. I will then detain you no longer than 
to observe, that the command which we possess of 
the sea, and the party of which we are assured in 
Sicily, will sufficiently inable us to keep what we 
may acquire, and sufficiently insure means of re r 
treat if we should fail of our purpose ; so that, 
with much to hope, we have, from any event of 
the proposed expedition, little to fear. I am 
therefore firmly of opinion that your decree for it 
ought not to be rescinded." 

When the question had been thus fully argued, 
Demostrafus moved, that the preparations for the 
war and the entire control of it should be vested 
in the generals. The Greeks followed up all public 
resolutions by sacrifices and festivals. It happened 
unluckily, that just before the sailing of the expe- 
dition, the feast of Adonis took place. Looking 

h 3 



102 CHARACTER OF ALCIBIADES. 

at the identity of ceremonies at their festivals, there 
is reason to believe that Osiris and Bacchus were 
only other names for the same deity. But be that 
as it may, the lugubrious observances of this rite 
Were very discouraging to the superstitious feelings 
of the Athenians. It was the custom of the citi- 
zens to wear mourning on this occasion : coffins 
were set out at the door of every house. The 
statues of Venus and Adonis were carried in pro- 
cession, accompanied by certain vessels called the 
gardens of Adonis, because they were filled with 
earth after the manner of garden-pots, and corn, 
herbs, and lettuce raised in them, which were at 
the conclusion of the ceremony to be thrown into 
the sea or some river. 

It is remarkable that such a festival was not only 
held in Greece, where indeed few ceremonies ori- 
ginated, but in Egypt, and, as we learn from holy 
Writ, in Judea during the period of its idolatry. It 
had all the character of a funeral. Greek my- 
thology informs us that Adonis was slain by a wild 
boar ; on which event, possibly historical, they not 
only grafted a love-story, but a miracle, in the 
annual death and revival of Adonis. But the story 
Was Syrian ; for Thammuz had been deified by that 
people, after being killed in hunting on Lebanon, 
whence the river Adonis descends. Hence the 
Greeks got the apparently strange ceremony of the 
garden-pots as well as the yearly decease. At 
certain seasons the river brought down a red soil 
from the mountain, which discoloured its otherwise 
transparent water. This was considered to be the 
blood of Thammuz, and a natural signal that his 
death had then taken place. The corn and other 
articles were cast in as a viaticum for the passing 



CHARACTER OF ALCIBIADES. 103 

soul ; and the only alteration the Greeks made 
seems to have been that of substituting the geogra- 
phical for the historical or fabulous name. Milton 
has described both the Syrian and Jewish rite, in 
Paradise Lost, book i. : — 

Thammuz came nexl behind, 
Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured 
The Syrian damsels to lament his fate 
In amorous ditties all a summer's day ; 
While smooth Adonis from his native rock 
Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood 
Of Thammuz yearly wounded : the love-tale 
Infected Sion's daughters with like heat ; 
Whose wanton passions in the sacred porch 
Ezekiel saw, when, by the vision led, 
His eye survey'd the dark idolatries 
Of alienated Judah. 

The loud lamentations of the women are parti- 
cularly marked by Ezekiel, as among the greater 
abominations. " Then said he unto me, son of 
man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house 
of Israel do in the dark, every man in the cham- 
bers of his imagery ? for they say, the Lord seeth 
us not ; the Lord hath forsaken the earth." By 
the expression, every man in the chambers of his 
imagery, is meant the imagery he kept in his own 
house, like the sculptured representations in the 
temple. " Then he brought me to the door of 
the gate of the Lord's house which was toward 
the north ; and, behold, there sat women weeping 
for Tammuz." The gate toward the north is 
evidently set down as an aggravation, because it 
was nearer to the temple than the other gates. 
Now Tammuz, or Thammuz, is clearly the same 

h 4 



104 CHARACTER OF ALCIBIADES. 

as Adonis, which is the name of the river near 
which he lost his life. In short, there is reason to 
think that this Syrian idol was the Dionysius of the 
Indians, the Osiris of the Egyptians, the Liber of 
the Romans, the Ai6w<ro$ and Bgopws of the Greeks, 
as well as their Adonis : and that Bacchus, or Bar- 
Chus, means the son of Chus, who was in fact 
Nimrod. 

The female lamentation, reprobated by the pro- 
phet, took so great a lead on account of the sorrow 
felt by Venus, under whatever name she might 
pass. The Greeks, besides changing the name, 
made a dramatic addition to the plot. We know 
that Adonis had a powerful rival in Mars ; who, it 
seems, in a fit of jealousy, transformed himself into 
a wild boar, and took his revenge in that shape. 
The river was discoloured with the blood ; but a 
few drops were diverted to a purpose for which 
florists may be thankful to this day : those " gouts 
of blood' - performed the elegant and delicate office 
of tinging the anemone ! Nor have we done with 
the beneficial effects of this dye, as far as regards 
flowers. Venus, among other outward marks of 
desolation, went slip-shod: roses in those days 
were all white; but they had thorns, as now; 
thorns scratch; and feet bleed, unless protected by 
neat's leather : so that to the skin-deep wounds of 
the goddess we owe that endless variety and deli- 
cate gradation of ruddy hues, by which our modern 
gardens are embellished. 

Ovid alludes to the alternate death and life : — 

Luctus monumenta manebunt 
Semper, Adoni, mei : repetitaque mortis imago 
Annua plangoris peraget simulamina nostri. Met. lib. x. 



CHARACTER OF ALCIBIADES. 105 

Orpheus has a hymn on the subject, of which 
this is the conclusion : — 

KovgYj, xai xogv ^ouri xolXqv SuXo; otlsv "A$V)Vi, 

%@eVW[L$V0§ \tX[A7TWV TS XU\ctl$ SV XVXXoUJlV WQCil$' 

AugfictXfjs %lxegcti$, vroXvyguls, daxgvoTifxe, 
'Ay\aopog<pe, xwYiyetricng y^algoov, (3u$vx<xIt<x* 
'Ifji,sg6vov; } Kvngidos yXvxsgov 3aAo£, egvos tgoiloc,' 
l~Isgcre<povY}$ sgctcri'UTXoxafxou \ex1goi<ri Xo^sv^sig* 
"Ov 'moll jusv mlei$ V7T0 Tugiagov rjsgocvlci) 
'HSe xsaCkw ngbg "OXvysnov uysi$ de[j,ci$ wgioxugixov 
'EA$e, [Auxug, ]U,Uf*j(ri Qegoov xugnovs oltto yalr}^. 

Nothing can be more elegantly poetical than the 
touches of Theocritus on this subject. The com- 
mon sense of the fable, and fables all have common 
sense, however disguised, is this. Adonis, after 
his death, was to pass six months with Venus, and 
six with Proserpine : to die and revive every year. 
Proserpine's turn is while the sown seed lies in the 
ground, and that of Venus from the first appear- 
ance of the blade till its fall under the sickle. This 
corroborates his identity with Bacchus ; for the 
rise and descent of the sap in the vine may be 
expressed by the same type. This early benefactor 
therefore probably subjected various products of 
the earth to cultivation, and hence the vessels of 
corn and other vegetables in the sacrifice. 

But to return to the solemn rite at the period in 
question. The mournful part of it cast a gloom 
over the minds of a people so susceptible of omens ; 
and the feeling was aggravated by another circum- 
stance. The Athenians had terminal figures at 
their doors, surmounted with the head of Mercury. 
These statues were all mutilated in one night. 



106 CHARACTER OF ALCIBIADES. 

The Corinthians, of whom the Syracusans were a 
colony, sent out under Archias, one of the Hera- 
clidse, were reported to have done this, in the hope 
that such an apparent prodigy might discourage 
the Athenians from the prosecution of the war. 
While men's minds were thus agitated, Alcibiades 
was alternately popular and unpopular. Those 
orators who were apparently his friends, but really 
his enemies, suggested the propriety of giving him 
full scope, but holding him to a severe responsi- 
bility. On their arrival at the theatre of military 
operations, Nicias produced a scheme for the con- 
duct of the war, in which he was opposed by Al- 
cibiades. Lamachus had a project originally dif- 
ferent from both. Not finding himself competent 
to carry this into effect, he made common cause 
with Alcibiades, who sailed to Sicily, and seized 
Catana by surprise. He also got possession of 
Agrigentum by a similar stratagem. His subtilty 
in the intrigue of military tactics enabled him to 
insinuate himself into one of the forts of Syracuse. 
He was recalled on an impeachment, at the instance 
apparently of his bitterest enemy, Androcles, with 
whom Andocides associates Pythonicus. One of 
Alcibiades's slaves, Andromachus, Agariste the wife 
of Alcm^eonides, and Lydus, a slave of Phereclus, 
took the lead in the several informations. Teucer 
of Megara, though pleading guilty himself, did not 
accuse Alcibiades. His confession of facts, and 
appeal against his accomplices, not only procured 
his pardon from the people, but a thousand 
drachmas as a reward. The mutilation of the 
statues was a main article of charge ; for the peo- 
ple had recovered from the absurdity of consider- 
ing it as preternatural, and attributed it to the 



CHARACTER OF ALCIBIADES. 107 

malicious frolic of some domestic enemy. Dio- 
clides produced a slave who deposed that he had 
seen more than three hundred men at work upon 
the Mercuries. He named forty, among whom 
were Andocides with his father and several of his 
family : but Andocides convicted him of falsehood, 
and the accuser was sentenced to death. Ando- 
cides himself accused four citizens, who eluded 
their sentence of banishment by previous flight. 

Alcibiades was sufficiently open to prosecution 
on charges of political ambition ; but they chose 
to attack him on ecclesiastical grounds. Eumol- 
pus, a Thracian who settled at Eleusis, had or- 
ganised the mysteries of Ceres. His descendants 
succeeded to the priestly office under the patrony- 
mic title of Eumolpidae, and when the line was ex- 
tinct, the designation was conferred on the elective 
college. Alcibiades was accused of violating the 
rules of the institution, by having worn a robe like 
the official dress of the high-priest, and assuming 
his heraldic appellation; by appointing a torch- 
bearer, and others of his companions as mystse. 
This it was which threw him into the arms of 
Sparta, and occasioned the speech in Thucydides 
quoted in the early part of this article. He is said 
to have possessed the property of the chameleon, 
and though contrary to his previous habits, to have 
assumed the simplicity and austerity of Spartan 
manners. But this was merely colourable : for 

Plutarch Says, Tol§ 8* a\Yj§ivol$ av ti$ hnz<^uiVYi<7BV avrov •sra- 



* Spoken by Electra of Helen, in the Orestes of Euripides, 
in reference to personal solicitude and the vanity of youth, 
continued into old age. 



108 CHARACTER OF ALCIBIADES. 

"kytiog yuvotixot tov (3a<riXea)$, rgotlsuopsvov xou a7rodYi[ji,ovvlo$ 9 qvtvd 
distpSeigsv wss xou xvsiv e% 'AXxifiio&ov, xoCi pj agvsioStxi' xoci 
Texov&yg 'cra.idtx.giQV appzv, e£oo psv Ascovlv^l^v xu\el<r§ai 9 to 8* 
ev1b$ avrov tyi$vgi£d[j,svov ovo[xu wgb$ tu; <pl\ug xa.) roue, oiro&Qvs vno 
tyj$ ptfgos, 'AXxi£ia$YjV ehcci, to<tovto$ egcag xulsl^s tyjv avSgwirov, 

After the miscarriage of the Athenians in Sicily, 
the Lesbians, under the patronage of the Boeotians, 
and the people of Cyzicum, under that of Pharna- 
bazus, offered to quit the interests of Athens and 
join those of Sparta. But the Chians put them- 
selves under the protection of Alcibiades ; and by 
his persuasion, succours were sent to them in pre- 
ference to all the others. But it was not possible 
that he could long wear the mask, or the plain- 
dealing Spartans be long duped by it. He foresaw 
his danger, and sought the protection of Tisa- 
phernes. The princely style in which the viceroys 
of Asia Minor lived suited him better. Xenophon 
describes the palace of Pharnabazus at Dascylus in 
Ionia. The gardens of Tisaphernes were not less 
distinguished by the elegance of their taste ; and 
so highly pleased was the satrap with his Grecian 
ally, that he distinguished the most magnificent of 
his pavilions, watered by refreshing streams, and 
encompassed by verdant meadows, by the name of 
Alcibiades, which it long continued to bear. But 
in this new connection he was still restless \ and 
wished to re-establish himself at Athens, if he 
could but secure himself against the resentment of 
the people. He knew that the principal Athenians 
on military duty at Samos were afraid of Tisapher- 
nes and the Phoenician fleet : he therefore sent a 
private messenger to them, to hold out the hopes 
of his procuring the friendship of Tisaphernes for 
them by intrigue, and to suggest to the nobility 



CHARACTER OF ALCIBIADES. 109 

the measure of taking the government into their 
own hands, for the preservation of themselves and 
their country, and the repression of democratic 
insolence. Phrynichus was the only officer who did 
not accede to the proposal ; and his refusal led to 
a long series of projects against each other, and 
cajolement of all the contending powers, which 
ended by Phrynichus being stabbed in full assembly 
by one of Hermon's soldiers on guard. The Athe- 
nians sat in judgment on Phrynichus after death, 
found him guilty of treason, and decreed crowns 
to Hermon and his party for having killed a traitor. 
A change in the constitution was now deter- 
mined on. The first proposition was, that none 
but the dregs of the people should be excluded 
from a voice in the government. A corporation 
of five thousand wealthy citizens was to be char- 
tered, and they were to represent and act for the 
people. But when Pisander and his fellow- com- 
missioners, who had been sent by the prevailing 
interest at Samos, found their strength equal to 
the task, they dissolved the old government. Five 
prytanes were elected, with power to choose a 
hundred : each of the hundred were empowered 
to choose three, and the four hundred were to form 
a senate, with uncontrolled power, and the five 
thousand were retained on the merely colourable 
pretext of giving advice to the efficient body when 
they might condescend to ask it. But when they 
had gained this object, they paid little attention to 
the remonstrances of Alcibiades, to press the war 
vigorously; for they dreaded the surly dislike of 
the citizens to the recent changes, and thought 
that the partiality of the Lacedemonians to oligar- 
chy would induce them to relax their accustomed 



110 CHARACTER OF ALCIBIADES, 

vigour. The state of affairs at home induced the 
party at Samos, who were discontented at the re- 
sult, to propose returning home : but Alcibiades 
prevented so ruinous a measure, by arguments ad- 
dressed to the army in general, and prophetic de- 
nunciations of danger, and by personal entreaties 
to some, and the application of force to others. In 
this he was much assisted by Thrasybulus, who 
had a strong pair of lungs, and stretched them to 
the utmost in his harangues. 

Alcibiades also promised, that the Phoenician 
fleet which the Lacedemonians expected, should 
either join the Athenians or remain neuter. In 
furtherance of this he went to Tisaphernes, and 
had influence enough with him to prevent his 
forwarding the ships, which had already advanced 
as far as Aspendus, a maritime city of Pamphylia, 
between Rhodes and Cyprus. The Lacedemonians 
therefore were disappointed. The motive to which 
Thucydides ascribes this duplicity on the part of 
Tisaphernes, is a desire so to balance the conflict- 
ing powers of the Greeks, as to weaken all the 
belligerents. 

The disolution of the Four Hundred, and the 
re-establishment of democracy, were favourable to 
the return of Alcibiades. By way of distinguish- 
ing that projected event, he brought eighteen ships 
to the succour of the Athenians, at a crisis when 
their fleet and that of Sparta had been engaged 
from morning till night off Abydos, with nearly 
equal advantage on both sides. After this victory 
he went to visit Tisaphernes, who put him under 
arrest : but after thirty days, he procured a horse 
and made his escape to Clazomense ; and by way 
of revenge, pretended that Tisaphernes had pri- 



CHARACTER OF ALCIBIADES. Ill 

vately set him at liberty. On joining the Athe- 
nians, he bore down upon the Peloponnesian fleet, 
which was riding at anchor before the port of 
Cyzicum. With twenty of his best ships, he broke 
through the enemy, pursued those who abandoned 
their vessels, and made a great slaughter. The 
Athenians took all the enemy's ships, and made 
themselves masters of Cyzicum. The Lacedemo- 
nian general was found among the slain. The 
consequences of this victory are strongly stated by 

Plutarch : — — IToAAwv Se xca vsxgciov xu) ottAcov xgulYj<ravTs$ 9 
tcL$ ts vccvg aflwa^ eXct£ov, ^eigco(jru[xsvoi ds xa» Kvtyxov, IxAi- 
zrovlog tov Qctgvoifiu^ov xot) twv UsXo'urovvria-ioov foccQSagevlcov, ou 
[xovov tov 'EAA>jcr7rov7ov £*%ov fisGalcog, aAAa xot) 7% a\\ri$ 
§ct\a.cro-Yi$ IjpjAacrav xciioL xgovros rohg Accxsda.i(xovioug. 

The soldiers of Alcibiades became exceedingly 
insolent. Thrasyllus having miscarried in an at- 
tempt upon Ephesus, the Ephesians erected a 
trophy of brass, to perpetuate the Athenian infamy. 
Alcibiades's men bitterly reproached those of Thra- 
syllus, on account of this new and mortifying 
circumstance ; for trophies had been made of wood 
till that time, that memorials of national hostility 
might not be too durable. Indeed both the Greeks 
and Romans seem to have disapproved of stone 
or iron, as materials for those monuments of tri- 
umph. Cicero has a curious passage on the sub- 
ject : — Ea est hujusmodi : Cum Thebani Lace- 
daemonios bello superavissent, et fere mos esset 
Grajis, cum inter se bellum gessissent, ut ii, qui 
vicissent, tropseum aliquod in finibus statuerent, 
victorias modo in praesentia declarandae causa, non 
ut in perpetuum belli memoria maneret ; aeneum 
statuerunt tropaeum." — De I?ivent., lib. ii. The 
case is brought before the Amphictyons, and 



112 CHARACTER OF ALCIBIADES. 

stated on both sides with logical and juridical 
precision. 

Alcibiades, after performing many other ex- 
ploits, sailed into the Hellespont, and took Selym- 
bria, a city of Thrace, on the coast of the Pro- 
pontis. In the action, with characteristic rash- 
ness, he exposed himself to unnecessary danger. 
After the treaty with Pharnabazus, he went against 
Byzantium. Cydon, Ariston, and Anaxicrates 
secretly engaged to deliver up the place, on con- 
dition that it should be protected from plunder; and 
Alcibiades honourably fulfilled his engagement. 

Duris the Samian, who lived in the time of 
Ptolemy Philadelphus, boasted of his descent from 
Alcibiades. He is commended for his accuracy 
by Cicero, Epist. ad Att. lib. vi. He is arguing, 
that no historian can stand his ground, if occa- 
sional error is to be too severely imputed. This 
Duris is placed in very respectable company: 
— " Num idcirco Duris Samius, homo in historia 
diligens, quod cum multis erravit, irridetur ? Quis 
Zaleucum leges Locris scripsisse non dixit ? Num 
igitur jacet Theophrastus, si id a Timseo, tuo 
familiari, reprehensum est ? Sed nescire, proavum 
suum censorem non fuisse, turpe est ; prsesertim 
cum post eum consulem, nemo Cornelius, illo 
vivo, censor fuerit." This Duris describes in 
glowing colours the triumphal return of Alcibiades ; 
the oars keeping time to the flute of Chrysogonus, 
who had gained a victory in the Pythian games : 
while Callipedes, the tragedian, gave direction to 
the rowers, in all the splendour of his theatrical 
paraphernalia. The admiral's vessel he described 
as entering the port with a purple sail, in token of 
Bacchanalian revelry. All this is. in perfect keep- 



CHARACTER OF ALCIBIADES. 113 

ing with the character of Alcibiades : but neither 
Xenophon, Justin, nor Athenaeus, mention any 
such particulars ; and as Plutarch tells us, that 
Theopompus and Ephorus are equally silent, the 
probability is that Duris had exaggerated. He 
might have thought it an honour to be descended 
from the Rochester or Buckingham of ancient days, 
and have given these gay anecdotes with pious 
unction. 

With respect to the decree for his recall, 

Plutarch Says : To /xey ouv ^V ( P l<r [ Jia T V$ xaSofiou trgoTSpov 

lx.sx.vgoo1o Kgillov rov KuWuio-^gov ygk^/calo^^ a>£ olutoc sv reus 
iheyslui$ -57£7ro/>jx£V, VTro^i^VYjfTKwv rov 'AAxj£j«$»3v tyj$ ^agilo^ Iv 

TOUT 01$, 

rWJpj §' rj <re Kctlriyuy, hyw tolut^v Iv olttoujw 

ETttov, Tiou ygatyus rovgyov edgtx<ra rods. 
^<pgay)$ 8' Yifjj£Tegoi$ yAwrfyg liii ToTo"5ecr< kUtqu. 

Critias was uncle to Plato's mother, and at this 
time the friend of Alcibiades. But the friendship 
of the ambitious is of short duration. When one 
of the Thirty Tyrants, the remembrance of former 
ties did not prevent him from conceiving the 
bitterest enmity against Alcibiades, and impressing 
it on the mind of Lysander, that his destruction 
was necessary to the tranquillity of Athens and 
the safety of Sparta. Critias was afterwards put 
to death by Thrasybulus, when he delivered 
Athens from the usurpation of the Thirty. 

Plutarch, in the above passage, quotes the ele- 
gies of Critias. Some fragments of them are also 
preserved in Athenaeus. His father's name, Cal~ 
laeschrus, is compounded of x.o<,xxo$ and al<rxgo$, like 
Onslow, with the etymological andantithetic motto, 
Festina lente. 



114 CHARACTER OF ALCIBIADES. 

During Alcibiades's stay at Athens, a proposal 
was made on the part of the mob to invest him 
with absolute power. The principal citizens were 
alarmed at this, and promoted his early embark- 
ation on military service. The more to expedite 
his departure, they gave him the choice of his 
colleagues. His election fell on Aristocrates and 
^dimantus ; but their commission extended no 
further than the joint command of the land forces, 
After a successful battle, the difficulty of raising 
money to put the pay of his own seamen on a level 
with that of the Lacedemonian mariners, gave rise 
to a new accusation. He found it necessary to 
go into Caria for this purpose, and left the care of 
the fleet to Antiochus, a skilful pilot, but with all 
the temerity of one inexperienced in command. 
This Antiochus was the man, who recovered the 
quail for him, which had escaped from under his 
robe while he was in a crowd, giving money towards 
a donative to the people. This slight circum- 
stance had made so lasting an impression of kind- 
ness misplaced, that Alcibiades now entrusted him 
with the command of the fleet in his absence. 
Antiochus was left with positive orders not to 
fight ; but he could not resist the apparent oppor- 
tunity of distinguishing himself, and was com- 
pletely beaten with the loss of life. Lysander 
took fifteen ships, and retired with his fleet after 
the action to Lesbos. The Athenians, in disgust 
at this miscarriage, lent a willing ear to the 
charges brought against Alcibiades by his enemies, 
and made a new distribution of military offices. 
Ten commanders were appointed, in which list his 
name was omitted. The commission by which he 
was superseded, was composed of Conon, Diome- 



CHARACTER OF ALCIBIADES. 1L5 

xlon, Leontes, Pericles, Erasinides, Aristocrates, 
Archestratus, Protomachus, Thrasyllus, and Aris- 
togenes. 

For the three succeeding years, the twenty-fifth, 
twenty-sixth, and twenty-seventh of the Pelopon- 
nesian war, having quitted Athens, Alcibiades was 
hovering about, and making war on his own 
account. In the first of these years, Conon, after 
making incursions into the enemy's country, was 
defeated by CaUicratides. In the second, the 
Athenians fought a battle, and obtained a victory 
at Arginusae ; on which occasion they gave a 
memorable instance of ingratitude and injustice. 
Theramenes brought a charge against the victorious 
generals, that they had left the bodies of the dead 
unburied. This would have been thought inde- 
corous, as a matter of feeling, in modern times : 
but so entirely were this sensitive and superstitious 
people scandalised at the neglect, that they sen- 
tenced six of the ten commanders to death. 
Tydeus, Menander, and Adimantus, were ap- 
pointed successors. Towards the latter end of the 
following year, the Athenians under them sailed 
to iEgos-Potamos, on the borders of the Helles- 
pont, opposite to Lampsacus, where Lysander was 
stationed, and offered him battle every morning. 
The remainder of the day was passed in disorder, 
and careless contempt of their opponent, of which 
Alcibiades, though out of office, was sufficiently 
patriotic to warn them, but without effect. The 
result was, a defeat. In the twenty- eighth year, 
Lysander took Athens, burnt the shipping, and 
destroyed the Long Walls. 

Alcibiades had retired into Bithynia. There 
he lost the principal part of his property, by 

i 2 



116 CHARACTER OF ALCIBIADES. 

robbery on the part of the Thracians. Themis- 
tocles had arrived at the Persian court, just 
after Artaxerxes had succeeded Xerxes, and had 
obtained the patronage of the king. On the 
strength of this precedent, Alcibiades deter- 
mined to solicit his protection. He felt that 
if trial were but made of his services, his preten- 
sions would be much more honourable than those 
of Themistocles, who had sought the king's aid 
against his countrymen ; but he meant to have 
exerted his influence in their behalf. But these 
intended efforts were prevented by his untimely 
death under the hands of assassins, at a village 
in the mountainous part of Phrygia. This savage 
act appears to have been devised by Lysander at 
the suggestion of the Spartan magistrates. Magseus 
and Susamithres, the brother and uncle of Lysan- 
der, were sent to negotiate with Pharnabazus, 
who lent himself to the treachery under the mean 
influence of political jealousy. The murderers 
were afraid to face their victim, and therefore set 
his house on fire. Of this he stopped the progress 
by throwing clothes and hangings upon it. He 
then sallied forth sword in hand. The barbarians 
dared not encounter him, but slew him from a dis- 
tance with darts and arrows, and retreated. Ti- 
mandra covered the body with her own robes, and 
buried it in a town called Melissa. Of Timandra, 

Plutarch SayS : — 'Tcturr^ Xeyovvi Svyoilega. ysve<r§oii Aa'/'&a, 
TYjv K.OQtv$lav jxsv f&go<rctyogsv§ei<ruv } ix Ss 'Txxagwv ^jxeAixou 

vox'to-puro; aixfAuXulov ysvopsvYjv, Timandra is the name 
by which this mistress of Alcibiades is generally 
known : but Athenasus calls her Damasandra. 
He had always two mistresses in his train. Athe- 
nseus gives the second the name of Theodota ^ 



CHARACTER OF ALCIBIADES. 117 

and asserts that the funeral pomp was principally 
furnished by her. Whichever of the two contri- 
buted the larger share, it seems to have been 
liberal in proportion to their means ; for they 
erected a monument, which lasted to the time of 
Athenaeus, who actually saw it The Emperor 
Adrian perpetuated the memory of this great man, 
by erecting a statue of Parian marble on the basis 
of this monument, and ordering an annual sa- 
crifice of a bull to his manes. 



tS 



118 



ON CALLIMACHUS. 



Callimachus was the son of Battus. Suidas 
places him in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphia, 
at whose court he resided about the year 280 
before Christ. There is however some doubt 
whether the patronymic Battiades may not refer 
to the descent of which he boasted from King 
Battus, the founder of Cyrene, of which town the 
poet was a native. 

In an epitaph on his father, whoever he might 
be, he has paid his filial duty, and returned his 
early obligations, if verse can repay them. The 
lines are a beautiful specimen of this kind of 
composition. The old man addresses those who 
may happen to visit his tomb : — 

"0$\<; Iftov i&ctgcL cnj/x-a <psgsig -sroSa, KaAXijua^ou pe 
"IcrSl Kvg^vuiov 'Grottia. ts kou yevslrjv. 

y Hg%sv, o $ ysi&sv xgsla-coM fioKrxuviYis. 
Ov vspetTig' Moixrtxt yoig o<rov$ '/Sov o^fxoch 7ra~&ct$ } 
"A;£g» /3/ou -sjoAjous ova unebevlo <plhoug, * 

Suidas says he wrote eight hundred pieces : — 

Ka» s?iv ctvTcp to. ysygotfLfieva, @i£\la (meg to. w, • . . • Twv 8s 
ctuTOv /3i§X/wv if* xa» return* 'IoDj a<pij»j. ^SjU,eA>j« "Agyovg 

* 'AxptZiov, the reading of the Anthologia. Dr. Blomfield in- 
troduces the more elegant reading, M^ Ao|f into the text. 



ON CALLIMACHUS. 119 

o»x«7]U,o/. 'A^xaS/a. TXavKog, 'EX7r/8gr. "^ctivqixu Sofy&oBec, 
jaevov £»j a<ra<p=/«v xa) Xo&ogltxv, etg nvcc *l£iv, yevopsvov sySgby 

tov KaAAi^a^ou. He goes on to enumerate many 
other works, of which only a very few fragments 
have come down to us. 

Madame Dacier edited Callimachus in the year 
1674. The edition ranges with the Delphin 
Classics, and is the only Greek work which does 
so. In her Dedicatory Epistle Viro illustri Petro 
Danieli Huetio, she says, " In Grascis Litteris nil 
elegantius, nil tersius, nil politius unquam fuit." 

The recent edition by Dr. Blomfield, the present 
Bishop of Chester, is now become the standard. 
With respect to the merits of the poet, he mentions in 
his preface the unfavourable opinion of Dr. John- 
son and of Ernesti, against which, without giving 
his own, he sets those of Politian, Muretus, and 
Ruhnken. As the lady, whose panegyric runs so 
high, is not added to this triumvirate, we may 
suspect that His Lordship does not hold female 
criticism and scholarship in any great veneration, 
at least in the classical line. Ancient testimonies 
may be added to the modern. Ovid, in his Cata- 
logue of Poets, settles his character very deci- 
sively : — 

Battiades semper toto cantabitur orbe ; 
Quamvis ingenio non valet, arte valet. 

Amor, lib. i. eleg. 15. 

To torture these words into any sense but that 
which they obviously bear, is both hypercritical and 
unnecessary : but it seems probable from another 
passage, that the disparagement is to be attributed 

1 4 



1#0. ON CALLIMACHUS. 

rather to poetical jealousy and the spirit of rival- 
ship, than to cool and unbiassed judgment : — 

Est, quae Callimachi prae nostris rustica dicat 
Carmina : cui placeo, protinus ipsa placet. 

Lib. ii. eleg. 4. 

It should seem from this that it was the height 
of his ambition to be considered as superior to 
Callimachus ; and that he should at once fall in 
love with a mistress, who would but pay him that 
compliment. 

The ancient testimonials to Callimachus have 
been peculiarly liable to question and equivocation. 
Propertius, in the thirty-fourth elegy of his second 
book, has this couplet : — 

Tu satius Musis meliorem imitere Philetam, 
Et non inflati somnia Callimachi. 

Here the word non, may be construed two ways. 
The most natural interpretation seems to be, to 
take it with the participle inflati, and then it is per- 
fectly consistent with another couplet : — 

Inter Callimachi sat erit placuisse libellos, 
Et cecinisse modis, Dore poeta, tuis. 

Lib. iii. eleg. 9. 

But Scaliger attaches non to a second imitere, and 
thus converts the praise into a censure. Now 
this seems the more improbable from another 
passage, which runs thus : — 

Ennius hirsuta cingat sua dicta corona : 
Mi folia ex hedera porrige, Bacche, tua, 

Ut nostris tumefacta superbiat Umbria libris, 
Umbria Romani patria Callimachi. 



ON CALLIMACHUS. 121 

It seems very unlikely that he should intend 
any general censure, when he wishes to be con- 
sidered as the Roman Callimachus. To reconcile 
this difficulty, and yet maintain his construction, 
Scaliger supposes that he aimed at a particular 
piece which his friend might think of translating. 
If this conjecture be right, probably the poem 
which Scaliger conceives to be alluded to is right 
also : namely, T« Alna, a harsh and obscure work, 
if we may believe Martial, who says: — "Legas 
iEtia Callimachi," speaking of a person who took 
pleasure in obscure writings. It is further to be 
observed, in proof that even Scaliger did not think 
the sarcasm involved in his construction general ; 
that in the passage of the ninth elegy of the third 
book, the two old readings were Coe poeta, and 
Dure poeta. Scaliger himself proposed to read 
Pure Poeta, for Dure. But the substitution of 
o for u, instead of P for D, has been established 
in the text of all the later and most approved edi^ 
tions. Quinctilian also says : — " Tunc et elegiam 
vacabit in manus sumere cujus princeps habetur 
Callimachus."— InstitutionesOratorice,lih.x. cap. 1. 

To establish the real character of a poet, who is 
said to have composed eight hundred pieces, of 
which only some hymns and epigrams remain, is 
extremely difficult ; and may have led my respected 
friend, the Bishop of Chester, to decline the task : 
for if he will not venture to appreciate a Greek 
poet, who shall ? Certainly not I : and therefore I 
shall only subjoin specimens ; and leave the reader, 
which perhaps is the safest and best, though the 
privative mode of criticism, to form his own deci- 
sion according to his natural taste and judg- 
ment 



122 ON CALLIMACHUS. 

The conclusion of the. hymn to Apollo shows 
that he had a satirical turn, even in his religious 
compositions. His enemies alleged, that he was 
incompetent to the composition of any extended 
work. He answers them sarcastically by versifying 
the proverb, Meya (ZiSxlov, y.sya xaxov. But he wrote 
his Hecate, a lost work of magnitude, to refute 
the calumny. 

'O <pQovo$ 'AnoWoovog h$ ovale*. XuSgiog slney, 
Ovk uyupcti rov cco&ov, og ov% 9 ova. wovlosy otslhi. 
Tov <p$ovov 'AttoXAcov vhMt yjXaosv, wU t eenrsv 
'Ao-Q-vglov vrolapolo (J<eyu$ poo§ 9 aKKu to. icoKKx 
Av^olIu yr\$ x«i 'srokXov efi GS«1i o~vg<psTOV sKksi* 
A*joi 8' ovx ctmo iJTCivlog vdcag (pogsovai MsAicrcai, 
'AAA* yJtis xaSagYj ts xai oc^gaavlog ctvsgvei 
Hlb*ctx.o$ ££ Ugris fatyq Ai£a£, axgov acolov. 

The following passage, in the hymn to Jupiter, 
contains an important sentiment. The poet is 
speaking of Jupiter's title to the empire of Heaven, 
as acknowledged without jealousy by his two bro- 
thers ; and he is philosopher enough to question 
the rationality of the old story ; which makes the 
three sons of Saturn divide the three kingdoms 
by lot : — 

ArjvaiOi 8' qv vrafjittuv ct\Yi§ee$ r^crav uofiot* 
4>av7o waXov Kgovlty(n hoi Tgi^oc Iwpotloi veifiotr 
Tl$ 8s x W OvXvpTTW ts xcd aifo xXygov eguovou, 
"0$ \loCKol (At) vsvlyXog ; In \<rotliQ yo\g sows 
TIil\Gio~§oa* t« 8e toVctov o<rov 8ia TrAsifOV ep^oucn. 

The farewell prayer to the deity has an extra- 
ordinary mixture, which in a very early poet might 



OiST CALLIMACHUS. 128 

be considered as simple and natural, but in a cour- 
tier savours of sarcasm or luxury : — 

Xocigs [teya, Kgov/8>j 'ST<xw'7reglixls, Iwrog lacov, 
AwTog u7tyi[/,ovIyis* rea 8' egyjAotla rl$ xsv ae/§o» ; 
Ou ysver, ovx eg-ai* t/j xev A»0£ zgyfictT as/crai ; 
XctlgSj vroLTsg, X°^§ a ^** 8*8ou_ 8' agelriv r cvpsvov re, 
Ovt ageing <*T£g oAwOg lirlfo^oLi av8ga$ us%eiv, 
Out a£s7>j afevow 8/8ou 8* agsrrjv re xa» ok£ov» 

As a specimen of his sepulchral poetry, we may 
take, in addition to his inscription on his father, the 
following epitaph on a friend drowned at sea : — 

'12<psAe ^8' hyevovlo Soot) vss$ m ov yoig olv >}j&s7$ 

n«7Sa AioxXs/Soo ^w7roAiv ef&vofiev 
NOv 8* 6 jasv e»v aAf srov (psgsrou vsxvg* avlt 8' exslvov 

Ouvo//,a xa» xsveov (rijj&a 'srageg^o^sdoi. 

But the most distinguished of his very numerous 
pieces were those in the elegiac strain, of which 
only Minerva's Bath has come down to posterity. 
Yet his compositions in this line constituted the 
firm foundation of his character among the an- 
cients, who estimated his merit in this elegant and 
pathetic style most highly. The poem on Queen 
Berenice's hair still lives in the translation of Ca- 
tullus, and proves that he was worthy to rank with 
the Roman triumvirate in the expression of such 
natural thoughts, as Ovid, who imputes art without 
genius to him, could not equal with all his wit and 
refined imagery. It seems that Ovid was like 
le commun des Martyrs ; and saw most clearly 
those faults in others, which were most rank, but 
to which he was completely blind, in himself The 
following lines will give some notion of the turn of 



1^4 pN CALLIMACHUS, 

thought. The star is supposed to speak in the 
language of compliment to its mistress : — 

Sed quamquam me nocte premunt vestigia Divum, 

Luce autem canas Tethyi restituor; 
(Pace tuafari hsec liceat, Rhamnusia virgo.; 

Namque ego non ullo vera timore tegam ; 
Non, si me infestis discerpant sidera dictis, 

Condita quin veri pectoris evoliiam) 
Non his tarn laetor rebus, quam me abfore, semper 

Abfore me a dominae vertice discrucior : 
Quicum ego, dum virgo quondam fuit, omnibus expers 

Unguentis, una millia multa bibi. 

Sidera cur retinent ? utinam coma regia flam : 
Proximus Hydrochoi fulgeret Oarion. 

The general character of the hymns, which con- 
stitute the largest portion of this Greek poet's extant 
works, partakes much of the lyric, though written 
in heroic verse ; they are composed in a free style, 
with much spirit, and full of curious matter, illus- 
trative of other authors on subjects of rites, ce- 
remonies, and mythology. The accumulation of 
epithets and proper names, or what the French 
call sobriquets, may appear tiresome to the reader 
who reads only for momentary entertainment; 
but the mythologist, the enquirer into early anti- 
quity, the comparer of idolatrous errors with the 
true knowledge, the investigator of the fallacious 
paths which polytheism trod, after its descent from 
the immoveable mountain of one and undivided 
truth ; of the labyrinth and the darkness in which 
it wandered after the light was hidden from its 
eyes, and the guide withdrawn from its steps, 
in consequence of its waywardness and obstinacy, 
may find much food for speculation in the Hymns 
of Callimachus. 



\m 



ON HORACE. 



Sapiens, vitatu quidque petitu 
Sit melius, causas reddet tibi : mi satis est, si 
Traditum ab antiquis morem servare, tuamque, 
Dum custodis eges, vitam famamque tueri 
Incolumem possim : simul ac duraverit astas 
Membra animumque tuum, nabis sine cortice. 

Hor. lib. i. sat. 4, 

Horace, as an article in biography, lies within a 
very narrow compass. Suetonius despatches him 
in three pages. His story may be told almost in 
three lines. He was a man of humble birth, pa- 
tronised for his talents, which were of the most 
marketable kind : brilliant, and convivial. He be- 
came a court poet, and consequently a rake. Had 
he not been a time-server and a turn-coat, he could 
not so have risen: but he was not a malignant 
turn- coat, and he did not vilify his brother poets 
of more strict principle, either alive or dead. In 
fact, he lived on terms of friendship and good- will 
with all of them who were respectable. He was a 
poet of that class in society, which in modern lan- 
guage is termed the man of fashion ; and however 
his life or his writings might fall short, or even 
offend against what the strict moralist or the divine 
might require, we shall find him to have retained 
more right principle, more genuine feeling, more 
heart, than a licentious court usually leaves to the 



126 ON HORACE. 

ministers or the masters of its revels. In this point 
of view it is interesting to examine Horace's cha- 
racter, as exhibited by himself in his Satires and 
Epistles. 

His filial piety was most creditable to good feel- 
ing. He was far from the affectation of wishing 
to sink his parentage : on the contrary, he delights 
in talking of his father ; and represents him, both 
in the passage at the head of this essay, and in 
others, in a most interesting light. Yet Horace, 
with his usual good taste, is not led by partiality to 
make too much of his father. The old man was 
libertinus : consequently must have been plain in 
his habits, and appears to have been of more than 
average soundness in understanding : but the pro- 
priety of the character is strictly preserved, and 
has been warmly eulogised by the critics. The 
father disclaims any power of argumentation, and 
tells his son that Sapiens, the philosopher, will not 
only teach him what is better to be avoided, and 
what to be pursued, but will assign the reasons why 
one action is right and another wrong, and will 
give him that insight into the nature of things, 
which none but a professor or a habitual student 
can communicate. The knowledge necessary for 
this purpose he disclaims, and is too modest to 
consider himself as qualified to engage in a discus- 
sion on morals as an abstract question. But he 
jean tell his son what custom will exact from him ; 
he can preserve vltamfamamque ; the object of his 
care is to guard him against rashness, and to hinder 
him from incurring those dangers, which dissolute 
habits of life never fail to produce. 

The passage, of which I have quoted a portion, 
may be considered as a summary of parental duty, 



ON HORACE. 127 

conveyed by the striking example of a person, who 
performed that duty in both its branches, with no 
other advantage than that of good sense, conscien- 
tiously and anxiously exerting itself. Horace tells 
us in the preceding lines, that his father had laid 
up something to provide for the subsistence of his 
children in comfort, though with frugality; and 
that he exhorts them therewith to be content. In 
the lines quoted, he represents him as anxious for 
their reputation. The prudent conduct of the 
father was amply rewarded by the gratitude of the 
son, who by these sketches of biographical piety, 
has raised a monument of fame to that father, not 
so splendid indeed, but as durable as his own. Nor 
is the skill with which the lessons of the father are 
represented to be enforced, less remarkable than 
their intrinsic wisdom. Moral lectures, when too 
long or too severe, disgust young minds : this father 
renders his palatable, by describing in a beautiful 
metaphor the approaching period when his child's 
advancement in the acquisition of learning, in 
bodily and mental strength, will render those arti- 
ficial and extraneous assistances no longer neces- 
sary : nobis sine cortice. 

Horace's tender sentiments of gratitude to his 
father appear again in sat. 6. : — 

Nunc ad me redeo libertino patre natum, 
Quern rodunt omnes libertino patre natum. 

The repetition in these two lines is evidently de- 
signed to tell us, that he is invulnerable by such 
attacks, and ready to re-echo the libertinus to those 
who would bawl it in his ears. A few lines further, 
he makes his birth almost an occasion of boast- 
ing : — 



128 ON HORACE. 

Ut veni coram, singultim pauca locutus, 

(Infans namque pudor prohibebat plura profari) 

Non ego me claro natum patre, non ego circum 

Me Satureiano vectari rura caballo, 

Sed, quod eram, narro: respondes (ut tuus est mos) 

Pauca: abeo; et revocas nono post mense, jubesque 

Esse in amicorum numero. 

The line in parenthesis leads to an incidental 
remark, that Horace, with all his wit, was not only 
no great talker, but naturally bashful and timid, 
both which properties, often the concomitants of 
superior genius, are fully though concisely described 
by the expression, Infans namque pudor. 

Some apology may seem necessary for so long a 
descant on common and easy passages. It may, 
perhaps, be sufficient to allege the pleasing strain 
of those passages ; the sense and intelligence dis- 
played in every clause of them ; the expression of 
the poet's mind in his graver moods. Horace's 
amatory and bacchanalian songs are elegant and 
spirited ; his talent for humour, as a good-natured 
satirist, is in the highest degree mirth-provoking ; 
but there is something better than all this : there 
is a just though not austere philosophy, interspersed 
through all his writings, whether lyric, satirical, or 
critical, which checks levity in its downward career 
towards vice, and surprises mere literary disquisi- 
tion and critical taste into the service of morality. 

Horace was probably indebted in no inconsider- 
able degree, to the prudential counsels of his 
father, for that discriminating observation of human 
nature, which gave a peculiar tone of amenity, 
a*widely varied style and manner to his satirical 
and didactic writings, so as to prevent his in- 
structions from being offensive to the proudest or 
the most fastidious of his readers : — 



ON HORACE, 1^9 

Ergo non satis est Hsu diducere rictum 

Auditoris (et est quaedam tamen hie quoque virtus ) : 

Est brevitate opus, ut currat sententia, neti se 

Impediat verbis lassas onerantibus aures; 

Et sermone opus est, modo tristi, saepe jocoso, 

Defendente vicem modo rhetoris, atque poetae, 

Interdum urbani, parcentis viribus, atque 

Extenuantis eas consulto. Lib. i. sat. 10. 

From the description before given of his father's 
method, it seems to have first taught him that 
prejudices are most sure to be removed, and con- 
verts most sure to be gained, to any system or set 
of opinions we adopt, by not seeming to advocate 
them too pertinaciously. The great, especially, are 
wrapt up in themselves and their own importance. 
While others look up to literature, science, and 
philosophy, they look down on those accom- 
plishments with an eye of mere patronage. The 
apologist for virtue must be candid in his views, 
and plausible in his address : his praise must not 
sting those who neglect it too poignantly, his pre- 
tensions must not be so high as to discourage those 
who wish to follow it. Horace's father, though no 
philosopher, possessed a thorough knowledge of the 
world: the son imbibed the art of dealing with 
various characters, of applying himself innocently 
to their prejudices, and of enforcing what he knew 
better than themselves, by arguments adapted to 
their previous habits and cherished hopes. This 
Aristippus-like assumption of attractive shapes, this 
versatility of agreeable talent, this fitness for the 
commerce of the world, is totally distinct from a 
genius for intrigue, from the machinations of 
cunning, or depravity of moral purpose. In this 

K 



ISO ON HORACE. 

view of the subject, no two poets ever wrote on 
principles more opposite than Juvenal and Horace. 
The former attacks the mischievous, the worthless, 
and the contemptible, with all the violence of de- 
clamatory fury. He is eloquent and he is poetical: 
but it is the eloquence and the poetry of unbridled 
invective against the disturbers of human happiness. 
The latter entraps the giddy and the vain into 
better and more correct manners, by the sportive- 
ness of his fancy, the variety and solid sense of his 
remarks. He has energy to convince, address to 
persuade, acuteness to anticipate and obviate ob- 
jections : poetry and raillery are alternately re- 
sorted to ; the dulce and the utile are mingled in 
agreeable proportions. 

In nothing is Horace to be more admired, than 
in his friendly dispositions, especially towards dis- 
tinguished persons, whose rival claims to court 
favour might not unnaturally produce a spirit of 
jealousy and disunion. His agreeable meeting 
with Plotius, Varius, and Virgil, on the sea-coast 
at Sinuessa, a town about eighteen miles from 
Formiae, on the Sinus Setinus, as described in the 
narrative of his journey, has a most engaging air of 
reality and substance in point of attachment : — 

Postera lux oritur multo gratissima ; namque 
Plotius et Varius Sinuessae, Virgiliusque, 
Occurrunt ; animae, quales neque candidiores 
Terra tulit, neque queis me sit devinctior alter. 

Lib. i. sat. v. 

He never loses an opportunity of extolling 
Virgil. In the following passage he tells us that 
Vaiius carried epic dignity to such a height ut nemo 



ON HORACE, 131 

of the Latin poets : for Virgil's iEneid had not 
yet appeared. He also describes the characteristic 
merit of Fundanius on comic, and of Pollio on 
tragic subjects, in iambics, pede ter percusso. As 
these authors, all but Virgil, are lost to us, I shall 
transcribe the passage : — 

Arguta meretrice potes, Davoque Chremeta 
Eludente senem, comis garrire libellos, 
Unus vivorum, Fundani : Pollio regum 
Facta canit pede ter percusso : forte epos acer, 
Ut nemo, Varius ducit : molle atque facetum 
Virgilio annuerunt gaudentes rure Camcenag. 

Lib. i. sat. 10. 

This passage helps to ascertain the date of the 
satire. It could not be composed before the year 
723, because the Georgics were not finished till 
then, and they as well as the Bucolics are cer- 
tainly included in the character of molle atque 
facetum. The temple of Apollo Palatine being 
dedicated about 7^6, renders it probable that the 
satire was written in 7^7> or 7^8, seven or eight 
years before Virgil's voyage to Greece, recorded in 
Horace's prophetic farewell ode. 

In a line and a half, the delicacy of sentiment 
and language, the art of treating plain and common 
subjects without rudeness, the power of giving a 
tender feeling and a refined colouring to rural topics, 
whether in the pastoral or didactic style, which 
might have afforded subject matter for the length- 
ened panegyric of an ordinary poet, are here 
concentrated without loss either of substance or of 
flavour. The term facetum is used in its m*ost ex- 
tended sense, to represent whatever is graceful and 
beautiful, the height of elegance and ornament, 

K % 



132 ON HORACE. 

as well as witty and agreeable expression. The 
other adjective is used metaphorically, and likens 
the drawing of his characters and descriptions to 
the finest wool of his shepherd's sheep. 

His tender affection for his friends breaks out 
on all occasions of absence or return, of quarrel or 
reconciliation. In a letter to Julius Florus he 
enquires into the several particulars of which he 
wanted to be informed : — 

Juli Flore, quibus terrarum militet oris 
Claudius, Augusti privignus, scire laboro. 

Lib. i. epist. 3. 

It concludes with a vow to sacrifice to the 
tutelary gods on his return, and a strong attempt 
to repair the breach of brotherly friendship : — 

Debes hoc etiam rescribere, si tibi curae, 
Quanta? conveniat, Munatius ; an male sarta 
Gratia nequicquam coit, et rescinditur ? At vos 
Seu calidus sanguis, seu rerum inscitia vexat, 
Indomita cervice feros, ubicunque locorum 
Vivitis, indigni fraternum rumpere fcedus, 
Pascitur in vestrum reditum votiva juvenca. 

He here not only bears testimony to the sacred- 
ness of fraternal ties, and hints at the calamitous 
consequences of their violation, but augurs from 
his long experience, that the balance having once 
been deranged, its readjustment is uncertain, and 
too likely to be but temporary. He puts it to 
Florus as strongly as his conciliatory system will 
allow, whether his own youthful blood and inexpe- 
rience be not the main obstacle to the restoration 
of permanent harmony, and gives a pious hint of 



ON HORACE. 133 

that most effective peace-maker, a good dinner at 
meeting after absence. 

So on the return of Pomponius Numida, of the 
Plotian and Emilian families, from the Spanish war, 
after an absence of three years, Horace invites a 
party of friends and schoolfellows, and gives vent 
to the transports of renewed association with sa- 
crifices, songs, and dances, in the thirty-sixth ode 
of the first book : — 

Et thure et fidibus juvat 

Placare, et vituli sanguine debito, 
Custodes Numidae Deos ; 

Qui nunc Hesperia sospes ab ultima 
Caris multa sodalibus, 

Nulli plura tamen dividit oscula, 
Quam dulci Lamiae, memor 

Actae non alio rege puertiae, 
Mutataeque simul togae. 

The age mutatce togce, of assuming the manly 
gown, was in the fifteenth year in Horace's time : 
but a custom prevailed under the emperors, when 
discipline of every kind began to be relaxed, of 
dispensing with one year of the regular probation. 
The toga was of different kinds, in point of length, 
colour, and ornaments, according to the respective 
rank and profession of the wearers. The ordinary 
sort was a large woollen cloak in form of a semi- 
circle. It was worn over the tunic. 

It may be remarked, that Hesperia ab ultima is 
not used like the epithet ultima to Thule, but as 
a geographical designation. All the western part 
of Europe was called Hesperia; astronomically 
from the star Hesperus, accompanying the setting 
sun ; mythologically from a son of Atlas, who 

k 3 



184 ON HORACE. 

reigned in those parts. When therefore Hesperia 
stands without an epithet, or with that o£ pro3cima> 
it represents Italy ; when with ultima, it is appro- 
priated to Spain, as lying farther to the west. 

Hitherto we have described the kindness of his 
sentiments towards his friends : the friendship of 
great men towards himself was equally honourable 
to his character. He was courted by men of all 
parties. To recount the names which are scattered 
through his works would be endless ; but he enu- 
merates among his personal intimates, Cassius, 
Brutus, Messala, Lollius, Pollio, Agrippa, Maece- 
nas, and Augustus : — 

Cum tibi sol tepidus plures admoveret aures, 
Me libertino natum patre, et in tenui re 
Majores pennas nido extendisse loqueris, 
Ut, quantum generi demas, virtutibus addas; 
Me primis urbis belli placuisse domique ; 
Corporis exigui, prsecanum, solibus aptum, 
Irasci celerem, tamen ut placabilis essem. 

Lib. i. epist. 20. 

He here throws in a humorous account of his 
own person and temper. The complaint of be- 
coming prcecanus seems rather whimsical, if that 
appalling event did not take place till the age of 
forty, as we may gather from his ode on the 
return of Augustus from Spain, and we may infer, 
in addition, that the whiteness did not become 
universal till ten years afterwards. 

There is no author so well deserving of attention 
as Horace, for the curious and discriminate use of 
epithets. Sol tepidus is not to be applied in the 
foregoing passage to the excessive heat of the 
sun, which he would have expressed by calidus, as 



ON HORACE. 135 

being hot in contradistinction to cold : tepidas is the 
mean between the two extremes, or moderately 
warm ; and here signifies the evening sun, when 
the air is more mild and temperate than at mid-day. 
Horace's skill and prudence in the recommend- 
ation of a friend is conspicuous in his letter to 
Claudius Tiberius Nero, descended from the an- 
cient family of the Claudii, who were of Appius 
Claudius's race, He introduces Septimius in the 
most favourable point of view, with a well-turned 
compliment to the patron he wished to interest. 
He insinuates that the prince admits none into his 
retinue, but men of the most nice probity: he 
ascribes all the qualities to Septimius, which would 
entitle him to honour and dignity in so distin- 
guished a situation. Dignwn mente domoque, fyc. 
is a splendid but delicate panegyric on the patron 
and the candidate : — 

Septimius, Claudi, nimirum intelligit unus, 
Quanti me facias : nam cum rogat, et prece cogit, 
Scilicet ut tibi se laudare et tradere coner, 
Dignum mente domoque legentis honesta Neronis, 
Munere cum fungi propioris censet amici, 
Quid possim videt ac novit me valdius ipso. 

Lib. i. epist. 9. 

As Horace was pleased with his friends and 
acceptable to them, he was also contented with his 
actual fortune, which is a leading feature in the 
composition of an agreeable character : — 

Ergo ubi me in montes et in arcem ex urbe removi, 
Quid prius illustrem Satiris musaque pedestri ? 
Nee mala me ambitio perdit, nee plumbeus Auster, 
Autumnusque gravis, Libitinas qusestus acerbae. 

K 4 



186 ON HORACE. 

Matutine pater, seu Jane libentius audis, 
Unde homines operum primos vitaeque labores 
Instituunt (sic Dis placitum) tu carminis esto 
Principium. Lib. ii. sat. 6. 

I shall now lay before the reader some passages, 
illustrative of Horace's wit, and humorous deli- 
neation of character. 

One of his earliest compositions was written in 
revenge against Publius Rupilius Rex, a native of 
Prseneste, who had affronted him by spitting out 
his pus at que venenum, his malice and abuse. The 
story begins thus : — 

Proscripti Regis Rupili pus atque venenum 
Hybrida quo pacto sit Persius ultus, opinor 
Omnibus et lippis notum et tonsoribus esse. 

Lib. i. sat. 7. 

Purblind people and barbers seem at first sight 
a strange combination ; but it shows the extent of 
Horace's experience and the acuteness of his re- 
mark. Persons who have a defective sight are 
curious about every thing that passes, and weari- 
some with the number and irrelevancy of their 
enquiries. Nature, when curtailed of one sense, 
always endeavours to work double tides with 
another. The ears make good the deficiency of 
sight, and contrariwise. But why are barbers pe- 
culiarly inquisitive ? Because their shops are the 
resort of a promiscuous assemblage at leisure hours, 
a principal mart of vulgar news and vague, gossip ; 
by retailing of which the tonsor himself at once 
gratifies his own appetite and earns popularity with 
his customers. 



ON HORACE. 137 

With respect to the narrative, Rupilius Rex had 
been proscribed by Augustus in the time of his 
triumvirate, and had withdrawn to the army of 
Brutus. He was jealous of Horace's superior for- 
tune, as holding the office of tribune in the army, 
and indulged in mean scurrilities on the score of 
his servile extraction. Horace retaliates by des- 
cribing the contest of Rupilius before Brutus with 
a merchant who had business in Asia, by name 
Persius. The poet calls him Hybrida, the mon- 
grel, because his father was a Greek and his mother 
an Italian. Rupilius considered himself as a per- 
son of great importance ; and the ridicule is 
heightened by the elevated tone and mock epic 
of the description. Nothing can be more keen 
than the satire conveyed in the equal match of the 
disputants. The two gladiators, Bithus and Bac- 
chius, were not better paired. The historically 
allusive pun at the conclusion may be thrown out 
as a - bone to the snarlers at that universally con- 
demned, but much practised species of wit. 

The ninth satire, in which he draws the picture of 
an impertinent fop and poetaster, is so excellent that 
it lives in every man's memory. The combination 
of literary and personal impertinence is the greatest 
of all nuisances in society : Horace laid hold of a 
precious specimen, and displayed it in the most 
ludicrous point of view. Fops may be divided into 
two classes ; the unconscious and the conscious. 
Horace's is of the latter description, and the prince 
of coxcombs. The circumstance of seizing the 
hand of a person with whom he had little or no 
acquaintance, is highly characteristic of indelicate 
boldness ; and the stiff civility, the " Your humble 
servant" of Horace, represents in the most lively 



138 ON HORACE. 

manner the well-bred rebuff which fine gentlemen 
so well know how to administer : — 

Accurrit quidam notus mihi nomine tantum, 
Arreptaque manu, Quid agis, dulcissime rerum ? 
Suaviter, ut nunc est, inquam ; et cupio omnia quae vis. 

Not that the intrusion could be so shaken off. 
Sometimes Horace stops short ; then he walks fast, 
but in vain. His inward prayer for Bolanus to 
relieve him is full of pleasantry, as we must suppose 
him to have been a person capable of being pleased 
with so self-conceited a talker. Paucorum homi- 
num, applied to Maecenas, as a person of judg- 
ment in the selection of his intimates, is borrowed 
from Terence, where it is applied by Thraso to 
the King of Persia, and derives its humour from 
the proverbial notoriety of the phrase. It was 
wittily addressed to Scipio by Pontius. Scipio 
one evening invited two or three friends to sup on 
fish. He was going to detain another party who 
accidentally called in afterwards. Pontius took 
him aside, and cautioned him against promiscuous 
familiarity. " Your fish is paucorum hominum." 
The pleasantry of the passage is much heightened 
by the fop considering himself as a fit member of 
Maecenas's select society. Horace's answer fur- 
nishes an elegant compliment to Maecenas, in that 
collateral and unobtrusive mode of eulogy, which 
practised and judicious courtiers are skilful in em- 
ploying. A story apposite to the subject of this 
satire is told of Aristotle. An impertinent fellow 
related some fact, and asked him if it was not 
wonderful. " No ! but it is wonderful that any 
man with two sound legs will stop to hear you." 



ON HORACE. 139 

In the third satire of the second book, Horace 
gives a fictitious dialogue between himself and Da- 
masippus, a Stoic philosopher, who was paying him 
a visit in the country. In another scene between 
Damasippus and Stertinius, the latter excepts none 
but the philosophic sage from the general imputa- 
tion of human folly. This character he, as a Stoic, 
maintains to be no where found but on his own 
system. Horace's object is to ridicule the severity 
of modern philosophers, and their exaggeration of 
the principles established by the founders of their 
respective sects. His peculiar skill is displayed in 
giving a ludicrous turn to what is ostensibly grave 
and rational, not with the design of undermining the 
foundations of truth, but of pulling away the gro- 
tesque additions which deface its superstructure. 
For this purpose he listens with an air of compo- 
sure to their philosophical lessons. They deal out 
folly and madness in large portions, and give him 
his full share. Stertinius, among others, details 
the maxims of Staberius, and his hope that poste- 
rity would know what vast riches he had left be- 
hind him, from the information of the inscription 
on his monument : — 

Quid simile isti 
Graecus Aristippus ? qui servos prqjicere aurum 
In media jussit Libya, quia tardius irent, 
Propter onus segnes. 

Horace shows an inclination to be thoroughly 
acquainted with his own folly, which is the only 
truth the schools are not calculated to teach, and 
to see his own picture drawn to the life. Both 
Damasippus and Stertinius utter excellent pre- 
cepts, and express them in lively and natural terms. 



140 ON HORACE. 

The mind would at once assent to every thing they 
propose, but for occasional bursts of extravagance, 
which turn them and their theories into jest, and 
are made to serve the moral purpose of humbling 
philosophical pride in general, and the arrogance 
of Damasippus in particular. 

In the next satire he adopts an opposite topic of 
ridicule against the imputed doctrine of the Epi- 
cureans, who made pleasure, as it was said, to 
consist in sensuality. He represents those cook- 
ing philosophers, who have since been denominated 
epicures, as slight, insignificant and con temp tible.- 
Catius says : — 

Quin id erat curse, quo pacto cuncta tenerem ; 
Utpote res tenues, tenui sermone peractas. 

In the next he describes in the most ingenious 
manner the sordid practices of persons, whose aim 
was to succeed by flattery to the inheritance of 
childless old men. But the speculation was carried 
a degree further : — 

Si cui praeterea validus male films in re 
Praeclara sublatus aletur, ne manifestum 
Ccelibis obsequium nudet te, leniter in spem 
Arrepe officios us, ut et scribare secundus 
Haeres, et, si quis casus puerum egerit Oreo, 
In vacuum venias : perraro haec alea fallit. 

The word sublatus refers to that savage custom 
among the ancients, which left the exposure of 
children to the option of the fathers. They were 
laid on the ground immediately on their birth : if 
the fathers took them up, they acquired civil rights 
by this adoption, and were educated under the 
parental roof. 



ON HORACE. 141 

The eighth satire is one of the most entertaining. 
Horace introduces the description of a miser's en- 
tertainment, by the following question to Fun- 
danius : — 

Ut Nasidieni juvit te coena beati ? 

Nam mihi quaerenti convivam, dictus heri illic 

De medio potare die. 

Men of sobriety among the Romans began their 
entertainments in the evening. This avaricious 
person, aiming at the reputation of a boon com- 
panion, for a single day of rare recurrence, begins 
his feast at noon, in the spirit of a true reveller. 
The flashes of wit and humour succeed each other 
so entirely without interval, that it would be im- 
possible to do them justice without transcribing a 
long poem in every scholar's hands. 

But if Horace laughs at his friends and all man- 
kind, he feels no reluctance to represent himself in 
a fantastical point of view : — 

Si queeret quid agam, die, multa et pulchra minantem, 
Vivere nee recte nee suaviter ; haud quia grando 
Contuderit vites, oleamque momorderit aestus, 
Nee quia longinquis armentum aegrotet in agris ; 
Sed quia mente minus validus quam corpore toto, 
Nil audire velim, nil discere, quod levet aegrum ; 
Fidis offendar medicis, irascar amicis, 
Cur me funesto properent arcere veterno ; 
Quae nocuere sequar ; fugiam quae profore credam ; 
Romae Tibur amem ventosus, Tibure Romam. 

The epithet jidis must be considered as applying 
not only to medicis, but to amicis. By the latter 
are meant the ancient philosophers, who act as 
physicians to the mind, and administer remedies 



142 ON HORACE. 

against worldly anxiety and sorrows, by directing 
their patients to simple and natural enjoyments, by 
strengthening them against the fear of death, and 
setting before them their imperfect views of hap- 
piness in a future life. 

In the third satire of the second book he gives a 
similar portraiture of himself through the mouth of 
Damasippus : — 

Atqui vultus erat multa et praeclara minantis, 
Si vacuum tepido cepisset villula tecto. 

We must now look at Horace as a philosopher : 
and in passing to this part of his character, we may 
notice his fondness for a country life as a proof that 
he was not a courtier at heart, but that he could 
adorn the freedom and tranquillity of a rural retreat 
with all the charms of poetical feeling : — 

Perditur hsec inter misero lux, non sine votis : 

O rus, quando ego te aspiciam ? quandoque licebit, 

Nunc veterum libris, nunc somno et inertibus horis, 

Ducere solicitse jucunda oblivia vitoe ? 

O quando faba Pythagorae cognata, simulque 

Uncta satis pingui ponentur oluscula lardo ? 

O noctes, ccenseque Deum ! quibus ipse, meique, 

Ante Larem proprium vescor, vernasque procaces 

Pasco libatis dapibus. Lib. ii. sat. 6. 

Virtue and competence are here set forth in the 
most amiable light, and the place pointed out where 
they may be enjoyed in the highest perfection. 
The peaceful evenings and social suppers in the 
country are called the nights and repasts of the 
gods, because the happiness found at them was un- 
alloyed. There is a tone of genuine feeling, a 
recollection of rational enjoyment in these lines, 



ON HORACE, 143 

which convince us that Horace was not acting the 
philosopher, but expressing his real sentiments. 
Yet grave as the passage is, he could not resist a 
stroke of satire at the kindred of Pythagoras to the 
bean, which, according to him, having been pro- 
duced from the same corruption, and at the same 
time with man, was to be treated with filial absti- 
nence and reverence. But Horace was no Pytha- 
gorean, and could eat his beans and bacon with a 
safe conscience, and a farmer-like appetite. 

On another occasion he expresses impatience to 
see his country-seat, and illustrates the persuasions 
to rural enjoyment by a most ingenious compa- 
rison. It was a proverbial saying, that no slaves 
were so happy as the servants of priests. Instead 
of coarse household bread, they lived on the cakes 
offered to the gods by votaries. Yet, as it some- 
times happened, they were so glutted with this 
" cheesecake diet/' that they ran away from their 
master's house to get a slice of ordinary bread. In 
like manner Horace is sickened of town gaieties, 
and runs into the country for a taste of simple, 
unadulterated pleasures : — 

Quid quaeris ? vivo et regno, simul ista reliqui 
Quae vos ad ccelum fertis rumore secundo : 
Utque sacerdotis fugitivus, liba recuso ; 
Pane egeo jam mellitis potiore placentis. 

Lib. i. epist. 10. 

Rure ego viventem, tu dicis in urbe beatum. 

Lib. i. epist. 14. 

His account of his Sabine farm, in his epistle to 
Quintius, furnishes a pleasing specimen of his de- 
scriptive powers. Along a valley, between the 



144 ON HORACE. 

Teverone and Currese, a ridge of hills ran from 
north to south, divided by another valley from east 
to west, where lay the territories of Blandusia and 
Mandela. The mountain Lucretilis was in the 
centre of Blandusia. One of its sides, called Ustica, 
gave the name to Horace's house and lands. The 
Digentia had its source in the district of Ustica, 
and flowed through Blandusia and Mandela, wa- 
tering a wood, which, with a temple in it, was 
dedicated to the goddess Vacuna : — 

Continui montes, nisi dissocientur opaca 

Valle; sed ut veniens dextrum latus aspiciat Sol, 

Laevum discedens curru fugiente vaporet. 

Lib. i. epist. 16. 

This being the bent of Horace's taste, though 
he was not a didactic writer, many notices are 
scattered through his works, which throw light on 
ancient agriculture. Among others, we learn that 
the shepherds drove their flocks alternately in 
summer and winter, to the distant pasturages of 
Calabria and Lucania. 

It has been observed before that our poet's cha- 
racter is not to be rated by his table songs. He 
takes many opportunities of censuring the volup- 
tuousness of his contemporaries, and commending 
the temperance and frugality of the early Roman 
heroes : — 

Hos utinam inter 
Heroas natum tellus me prima tulisset ! 
Das aliquid famae, quae carmine gratior aurem 
Occupat hum an am ? Grandes rhombi patinaeque 
Grande ferunt una cum damno dedecus. 

Lib. ii. sat. 2. 



ON HORACE. 14,5 

The necessity of virtue and wisdom, without 
which freedom is a snare and not a blessing, con- 
stitutes a favourite topic with him. In the satire 
in which Davus takes the privilege of the Saturn- 
alia, the poet puts into the mouth of his Grecian 
slave, by way of making the object of preference 
more characteristic and less offensive, a description 
of Rome, as a sink of impurity ; of Athens, as the 
seat of learning and virtue. In earlier and more 
heroic days, a person would have been considered 
as a coxcomb, and a violator of public decency, 
had he appeared with more than one ring. In the 
more luxurious times, it was the fashion to wear 
three. He describes the inconsistency of mankind, 
in vacillating between virtue and vice, in a very 
spirited portrait : — 

Saepe notatus 
Cum tribus annellis, modo laeva Priscus inani, 
Vixit inaequalis, clavum ut mutaret in horas; 
iEdibus ex magnis subito se conderet, unde 
Mundior exiret vix libertinus honeste : 
Jam mcechus Romae, jam mallet doctus Athenis 
Vivere ; Vertumnis, quotquot sunt, natus iniquis. 

Lib. ii. sat. 7. 

In a letter to Maecenas, he attacks two of the 
most common vices, which throw impediments 
in the way of human happiness. The first is 
avarice and ambition warring with united forces ; 
the second is levity and inconstancy in the objects 
of pursuit. For these two diseases he proposes two 
remedies : truth, and honesty or honour : what the 
Greeks term irgiirov, the Latins decorum, which 
is Cicero's word throughout the first book of his 
Offices. His definition of it includes the practice 



146 ON HORACE. 

of all the virtues ; a course of action worthy of 
human nature. He seems indeed to consider it 
as the leading distinction between the instinct of 
the lower animals and the reason of man : — " Nee 
vero ilia parva vis naturae est rationisque, quod 
unum hoc animal sentit, quid sit ordo ; quid sit, 
quod deceat ; in factis dictisque qui modus." 

Horace exhibits himself here in an interesting 
light; as abjuring slighter composition, and devoting 
himself to philosophy, which consists in the con- 
templation and knowledge of things, and to what 
he calls the decern, or that conduct of which the 
verum is the parent. He professes however to be 
the votary of no sect. Truth was his choice, 
wherever he could find it. His experienced scru- 
tiny had discovered the forte and the feeble of 
every sect : we have seen in repeated instances, 
how he calls them back from their fallacies, and 
winds a retreat when they have lost their game, and 
are pursuing the counterscent of prejudice. He 
was the huntsman, not one of the hounds : had he 
belonged to the pack, his cry might have been 
louder than the rest, but its articulation would 
have been lost in the hubbub and confusion of the 
field : — 

Nunc itaque et versus et caetera ludicra pono ; 

Quid verum atque decens, euro et rogo, et omnis in hoc 

sum; 
Condo, et compono, quae mox depromere possim : 
Ac ne forte roges, quo me duce, quo lare tuter , 
Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri, 
Quo me cunque rapit tempestas, deferor hospes.^ 

Lib. i. epist. I. 

Truth accomplishes the philosopher, and virtue 
makes the man happy. The sincere enquirer after 



ON HORACE. 147 

both, to be successful, must be earnest, consistent, 
and unwearied in his endeavours : he must think for 
himself) without rejecting either the discoveries or 
the experiences of others. Difficulties vanish before 
assiduous research, and proficiency is the reward 
of perseverance. Plato has a fine passage on this 
subject, in the sixth book of his Republic : — 'Hyou- 

[tevYis $r) aXrjSelac, ovx uv nols, olfj.cu, <pcufj,EV cturfi yoqov xaxwv 
axoKov^Yjcrcii. Uoog yocq ; 'AAA' vytsc ts kcu fj.srgiov yjSoc' o> x«i 
o-coppoo-vvYiV sVscrSai. 

The next epistle, to Lollius, contains precau- 
tions against ambition, avarice, debauchery, and 
passion : — 

Semper avarus eget : certum voto pete finem. 

The miseries and inconsistency of avarice have 
furnished an abundant topic to all writers on morals 
and manners. From the following passage of 
Cicero pro Roscio, we learn how easy it is for those 
who are not blinded by avarice, to detect the ma- 
chinations of the avaricious man, or to lead him to 
his own ruin : — " O praeclarum testem, judices ! 
O gravitatem dignam expectatione ! O vitam 
honestam, atque ejusmodi, ut libentibus animis ad 
ejus testimonium vestrum jusjurandum accommc- 
detis ! Profecto non tarn perspicue istorum male- 
ficia videremus, nisi ipsos ccecos redderet cupiditas, 
et avaritia, et audacia." 

Sat. Sed quibus captus dolis, 
Nostros dabit perductus in laqueos pedem ? 
Inimica credit cuncta. Atr. Non poterat capi, 
Nisi capere vellet. Regna nunc sperat mea : 
Hac spe minanti fulmen occurret Jpvi : 
Hac spe subibit gurgitis tumidi minas ; 
L 2 



148 ON HORACE. 

Dubiumque Libycae Syrtis intrabit fretum; 
Hac spe, quod esse maximum retur malum, 
Fratrem videbit. Seneca in Thyeste, 286. 

In an epistle to Numicius, our author proves thaf 
the admiration of unworthy objects is a principal 
cause of misery : — 

Hunc solem, et Stellas, et decedentia certis 
Tempora momentis, sunt qui formidine nulla 
Imbuti spectent. Lib. i. epist. 6. 

Horace's reasoning stands on this foundation. 
Nothing is naturally so calculated to excite the 
astonishment and raise the admiration of the human 
mind, as the structure of the universe, the uni- 
formity of motion in the bodies that compose 
our system, the revolutions of the seasons, and the 
complicated, yet methodised arrangement of exist- 
ing things. Some philosophers have seen hunc solem, 
et Stellas, and yet have admired nothing. If they 
have not been moved by these wonders, if their 
hearts have not been affected by the connection 
between themselves and this stupendous machinery 
of material splendour, how can we admire the 
inferior glories of the mine or of the palace ? How 
can we value, or even withhold our contempt from 
the trappings of state, or the frivolity of popular 
applause, and the ephemeral triumph of political 
honours ? This world contains nothing which a 
wise man would admire. The hierarchies of 
heaven obey the will of their Creator : the im- 
pression their magnificence should make on us, is 
to lead us to look down on them, and up to their 
first Mover. 



ON HORACE. 149 

The last point of view in which we have to look 
at Horace, is the literary and the critical. The 
scope of his ambition in his writings, was to please 
judges of a certain cast : — 



Nam satis est equitem mihi plaudere, ut audax, 
Contemtis aliis, explosa Arbuscula dixit. 

Lib. i. sat. 10. 



The Equites, or Knights, are here taken for the 
nobility at large, and especially those of a cultivated 
mind. To stand well with posterity, we must 
please our contemporaries of the best taste. Each 
age furnishes a few ; no age furnishes many. But a 
reputation so established is preferable to the shouts 
of the vulgar, which are silent after the first explo- 
sion : a fame founded on enlightened approbation 
is like the swell of a well-tuned instrument ; barely 
audible when the tone is first emitted, but increas- 
ing in progressive vibration, till it fills the area 
within which it is confined. As his own critic, he 
maintains his claim to originality, though he had 
been accused of plagiarism : — 

Libera per vacuum posui vestigia princeps, 

Non aliena meo pressi pede. Lib. i, epist. 19. 

He maintains that he had discovered a path 
unknown to the poets of his country, and that he 
is a guide, not a follower : but he acknowledges 
that he has imitated the Greeks, and points out 
how his countrymen may imitate him, instead of 
copying what is least valuable. In the second 

l 3 



150 ON HORACE. 

epistle of the same book, he lays down rules 
for reading the poets in general with advan- 
tage : — 

Fabula, qua Paridis propter narratur amorem 
Grsecia Barbarian lente collisa duello, 
Stultorum regum et populorum continet sestus. 

The fable is what the Greek critics call y.6Qo$, 
or the disposition of the subject. Order and 
arrangement of parts are necessary to the compo- 
sition of a poem. We hear much of the probable 
and the improbable in a story. It matters not how 
absurd or improbable be the end, provided the 
means be natural and probable. Tasso and Ariosto 
please not only the lovers of the marvellous and 
the extravagant, but the very readers of taste and 
judgment who most affect the correctness and 
purity of Virgil. Were probability of story indis- 
pensable, JEsop's fables would never have pene- 
trated beyond the nursery : yet they have been 
edited by those who were competent to comment 
on the Iliad. The difference between the fabulist 
and Homer, setting aside the graces and splendours 
of poetry, which have nothing to do with the pre- 
sent question, is that ^Esop makes beasts, the poet 
makes men, his heroes. The mode of conducting 
the actions of the heroes is strictly analogous ; the 
moral of either apologue is rational. 

The character of Horace's genius as a critic is 
principally to be drawn from his epistles to the 
Pisos and to Augustus. There are two kinds of 
the epistle ; the elegiac and the didactic. The 
former, the characteristic of which is sensibility of 



ON HORACE. 151 

nature and elegance of mind, or perhaps more pro- 
perly tenderness of heart, is Ovid's province. The 
latter requires superiority of sound and common 
sense, an extensive knowledge of human life, and 
the polish of high breeding and courtly address. 
Here Horace reigned without a rival, in that deli- 
cate department of moral criticism, which partakes 
more of refined sentiment than of scholastic learn- 
ing or precision. In the epistle to Augustus, 
he ridicules the unmeaning admiration of anti- 
quity : — 

Naevius in manibus non est, et mentibus haeret 
Paene recens ? adeo sanctum est vetus omne poema. 

But this is far from being uttered in contempt 
of the poets who preceded him. We admire the 
masculine understanding, the easy expression, the 
unsophisticated representation of life and manners 
in the old writers of our own country. Horace 
entertained no less candid and rational esteem 
for the early Roman poets, who formed them- 
selves on the model of Eupolis, Cratinus, and 
Aristophanes : — 

Illi, scripta quibus comcedia prisca viris est, 
Hoc stabant, hoc sunt imitandi ; quos neque pulcher 
Hermogenes unquam legit, neque simius iste, 
Nil prseter Calvum et doctus cantare Catullum. 

Lib. i. sat. 10. 

This Hermogenes Tigellius was a literary as 
well as a personal dandy. He was the favourite 
musician of Augustus ; insipid in his tastes, more 

l 4 



152 ON HORACE. 

barbarous in his delicacy, than the utmost bar- 
barism of unadulterated roughness. Yet this 
fellow thought it genteel to affect antiquarian 
literature ; and professed himself the partisan of 
Lucilius, whom Horace swears he never read. 
Horace was the advocate, and the model of cor- 
rectness ; but it was only to counteract this egre- 
gious foppery, that he for a moment attempted to 
dam up the ancient spring of genuine poetry. His 
ear could not reconcile itself to the ruggedness of 
verse in Lucilius : but in a passage at the begin- 
ning of the last-quoted satire, he apologises for 
his presumption : — 

Quis tarn Lucili fautor inepte est, 
Ut non hoc fateatur ? at idem, quod sale multo 
Urbem defricuit, charta laudator eadem. 

Horace repels the imputation of contradictory 
criticism. He admits the wit and pleasantry of 
the old bard's writings, which had animated the 
coarse merriment of a preceding generation ; but 
finds himself bound to enter his protest against the 
harshness of his versification. The two positions, 
which the witlings of his day had endeavoured to 
represent as contradictory, are perfectly in unison 
with the true principles and consistency of cri- 
ticism. 

Horace's Lucilian satires are a curious part of 
his critical works. However ready to admit the 
general merit of Lucilius, the correctness of man- 
ners and taste in the Augustan age, his own station 
at court, as the arbiter elegantiarum, made it ne- 
cessary for him to establish a Procrustes' bed of 



ON HORACE. 153 

criticism, to which the dimensions of the old poet 
were incommensurate. Yet the fashionable cry was 
at this time for the ancients : that of Hermogenes 
for Lucilius, that of Demetrius for Calvus and 
Catullus, and we have already seen that Plautus 
was more popular than Terence. The court 
therefore was divided into parties ; and it was 
necessary for Horace, with w T hom popularity was 
as it were a stock in trade, to unite with one with- 
out giving mortal offence to the other. He had 
to parry as well as to thrust ; and this consideration 
will enable us to reconcile the seeming incongruities 
of his critical opinions. In writing critically, he 
had objects ulterior to criticism. The galled 
jades, who winced at his censures, thought to elude 
their point by crying up the broad blunt satire of 
a former poet : Horace, who had no malignity, 
and less vigour than his predecessor Lucilius, the 
satirist of a coarser age, or than his successor Ju- 
venal, the satirist of a period still more corrupt 
than his own, was obliged to exercise the arts of 
pleading in behalf of that tender treatment, by 
which alone he could manage and regulate the 
loose and slippery morals of a luxurious court and 
people. 

Dr. Hurd says, the epistle to Augustus is an 
apology for the Roman poets. His epistle to the 
Pisos is a criticism on the Roman drama, accord- 
ing to this critic, and not on the art of poetry in 
general. Baxter is of the same opinion. " Satira 
haec est in sui saeculi poetas, praecipue vero in 
Romanum Drama." We find indeed desultory 
remarks on all departments ; but nothing like a 
principled system of criticism, an ars et institutio 
poetica. The most that can be made of it is a 



154 ON HORACE. 

miscellaneous collection, if we consider poetry at 
large as the subject of the piece. Under the 
influence of this latter prejudice, says Dr. Hurd, 
" several writers of name took upon them to com- 
ment and explain it : and with the success which 
was to be expected from so fatal a mistake on 
setting out, as the not seeing that the proper and 
sole purpose of the author was, not to abridge the 
Greek critics, whom he probably never thought of ; 
nor to amuse himself with composing a short cri- 
tical system, for the general use of poets, which 
every line of it absolutely confutes ; but, simply to 
criticise the Roman drama. For to this end, not 
the tenor of the work only, but, as will appear, 
every single precept of it, ultimately refers." This 
eminent critic displays much ingenuity in re- 
medying the mischief of so fundamental an error. 
Instead of considering it as an epitome of the 
Greek critics, according to which notion it would 
often be difficult to reconcile him with his sup- 
posed authorities, and often necessary to create 
conformities never thought of by the author, 
Dr. Hurd establishes a unity in the subject, and 
a connection in the method. On his hypothesis, 
what as a maxim or remark on universal poetry 
would seem slight, unsatisfactory, or unconnected, 
appears in its proper place in the general order of 
the author's reflections, as illustrating the state of 
the Roman theatre at particular periods. The 
especial rules of composition are all directed to 
the formation of a Roman dramatist, whose business 
it is to derive instruction and assistance from the 
kindred families of the poetic art ; and hence it 
is, that in a treatise on the stage, we glean occa- 
sional information, but no consistent and regulated 



ON HORACE. 155 

theory of the epic, the didactic, the elegiac and the 
satirical styles. 

Horace and Virgil have given much offence by 
their flattery of Augustus. The former in the 
epistle to Augustus : — 

Praesenti tibi maturos largimur honores, 
Jurandasque tuum per numen ponimus aras, 
Nil oriturum alias, nil ortum tale fatentes. 

Their only apology is to be found in the uni- 
versal incense of extravagant adulation, offered up 
by all the court poets of the Augustan age. The 
blasphemous practice of erecting altars to the em- 
perors, took its rise under the tyranny of Julius 
Csesar. The senate had enjoined, by an express 
decree, that the Romans should swear by Caesar's 
health and safety, even in his lifetime. Balbus 
says in a letter to Cicero, " Haec quam prudenter 
tibi scribam, nescio : sed illud certe scio, me 
ab singulari amore ac benevolentia, qusecumque 
scribo, tibi scribere : quod te (ita, incolumi Caesare, 
moriar) tanti facio, ut paucos seque ac te caros 
habeam." — Ep. ad Att. This passage shows that 
Caesar was at this period an every-day oath. He 
has no more to do than Jove or Pallas with the 
subject of the sentence into which he is paren- 
thetically introduced ; so that this vow of self- 
devotion for his sake has not even the merit of 
what Sheridan calls sentimental swearing. Those 
who have gone this length will go further. The 
following passage from Dio completes the farce : — 

"AAArjv rs Tivol elxovu h$ rov tou Kvpivov volov Sscp uvixyjtw 
sTriyputyocvTeg, xui «AA>jv s$ tov Kci7riTookiov -&upa. tou§ @a<7i\s6<rot.v- 

TU$ 7T0TS SV T>j 'Pc/JjUOr), UV=§=<TUV* Lib. Xllll. 



l<5t) ON HORACE. 

When we see a senate thus enslaving itself, and 
voting idolatry by Act of Parliament, we cannot 
wonder that the gay satellites of a court should 
follow the example of the conscript fathers, the po- 
tent, grave, and reverend Seniors, though at a 
respectful distance from the exaggerations of their 
flattery.* 

* The length and general scope of this article will not admit 
of any present review of Horace as a lyric poet. Lipsius says 
in a letter to Cruquius, " Horatio, mi Cruqui, in Lyricis merito 
illud Homericum dabimus, . ,, . sf? Ko/pavo? ?r»." — Epistolicamm 
Qucestionum, lib. ii. 



1.57 



ON THE CHARACTERS OF TITUS AND 
BERENICE. 



Tacitus and Josephus are the two authors from 
whom the character of Titus is principally to be 
drawn. Tacitus is supposed to have been raised 
to the office of quaestor, and probably to the rank 
of senator, by Vespasian. His gradation through 
the magistracy was progressive under Titus, till he 
reached the functions either of tribune or aedile. He 
tells us in his annals, that he was one of the college 
of fifteen, and invested with the office of praetor, in 
the time of Domitian. Both these historians painted 
from the life, and under personal obligation. Tacitus 
had been promoted by Titus, Josephus had been 
treated with mildness and generosity by him, and had 
submitted to him his history of the Jewish war, which 
the conqueror of Jerusalem not only approved, but 
subscribed with his own hand, and gave orders for 
its publication. Tacitus commences the second 
book of his history, by remarking that fortune was 
preparing an important scene in another quarter of 
the world, and laying the foundation of a new 
imperial family, destined at first to flourish in 
prosperity, and in the end, after a disastrous reign, 
to be hurled from its pre-eminence by a dread- 



158 ON THE CHARACTERS OF 

fill catastrophe. The fate of the people, alter- 
nately beneficial and calamitous, was identified with 
the destinies of its successive sovereigns. Rome 
prospered under Vespasian and Titus, but suffered 
severely during the reign of Domitian. The 
tyrant was stopped in his career, and the Flavian 
family became extinct. 

At the beginning of this book, Tacitus describes 
in an interesting manner, but with his usual bre- 
vity, the talents, accomplishments, person, and 
character of Titus. He was at this time in his 
twenty-eighth year. By the favour of Narcissus, 
to whom his father Vespasian paid court, he was 
educated in the palace with Britannicus, the son of 
Claudius. The destined heir to the empire was 
cut off by Nero's villany : but Titus, who then 
seemed to be stationed far below the seat of im- 
perial ambition, survived to reign in glory, and 
with the high esteem of the Roman people. On 
this subject there is a story in Suetonius, that 
Claudius's favourite freedman, Narcissus, Titus's 
early patron, consulted a fortune-teller about the 
destiny of Britannicus. The huckster of futurity 
obstinately persisted in his prediction, that the 
young prince would never reign, but that Titus, 
who was standing by, was born to sovereignty. 

While Galba was supposed to be still in posses- 
sion of supreme power, Vespasian sent his son 
from Judea to congratulate that emperor. At 
Corinth, Titus received intelligence of Galba's 
murder. An uncertain, probably a disputed suc- 
cession, presented but a choice of difficulties. He 
resolved to proceed no farther than Greece. On 
setting sail from Corinth, he directed his course 



TITUS AND BERENICE. 159 

towards Rhodes and Cyprus. " Inde Syriam 
audentioribus spatiis petebat." At Cyprus he 
visited the temple of the Paphian Venus, and con- 
sulted her Oracle. The answer was auspicious, 
and he returned to his father. Tacitus mentions 
a prevailing impression, that his connection with 
Berenice, sister to Agrippa the Second, and wife of 
Herod, king of Chalcis in Syria, secretly influenced 
this retrograde movement. This part of Titus's 
history will be looked into hereafter. * 

On the death of Vitellius, a decree passed the 
Senate, appointing Titus his father's colleague in 
the consulship. When Vespasian began to turn 
his thoughts towards Italy, he determined to leave 
his son Titus in the command of the armv, and to 
confer on him the prosecution of the war against 
the Jews. The speech of Titus to his father at 
parting, places his character in a most amiable 
point of view. Its sole object seems to have been, 
to plead in favour of Domitian. He cautioned 
Vespasian against being rashly incensed by insinu- 
ations of criminality. Towards his own son, it 
were but just to be unprejudiced and mild. A 
numerous issue affords more firm support to the 
imperial dignity than fleets and armies. Friends 
drop off by death, and abandon us to follow more 
inviting fortunes : they renounce us in disgust at 
the disappointment of unreasonable or impossible 
expectations. But blood forms an indissoluble tie, 
especially between princes, in whose fate all their 
kindred must be involved : nor can brothers be 

* Fuere, qui accensum desiderio Berenices RegiiMB, veriisse iter 
crederent. Neque abhorrebat a Berenice juvenilis animus : sed 
gerendis rebus nullum ex eo impedimentum. — Historiarum, 
lib. ii. cap. 2. 



160 ON THE CHARACTERS OF 

expected to live in unity, but under the influence 
and example of their common parent. 

After serving with his father in Britain, in Ger- 
many, and in . Judea, with the winning behaviour 
and address ascribed to him by Tacitus, it is no 
wonder that he gained a complete ascendency over 
his soldiers. In the fifth book, his army is de- 
scribed as consisting of the fifth, tenth and fifteenth 
legions, which had served under Vespasian, the 
twelfth from Syria, and two others from Alexan- 
dria, with twenty cohorts of allies, and eight 
squadrons of horse. The kings Agrippa and So- 
hemus accompanied him, King Antiochus sent 
auxiliaries, and the Arabs took the field against the 
Jews, whom they hated. With this tremendous 
force Titus encamped near Jerusalem, and besieged 
the city. The fifth and tenth legions here men- 
tioned, had been brought from Alexandria in the 
time of Nero, when Vespasian sent his son for 
them from Achaia, while he himself passed over 
the Hellespont, and went by land into Syria, where 
he collected the Roman forces, and organised the 
subsidiary armies of the neighbouring kings. 

It is at this period, that Josephus takes up the 
history of Titus. He sailed, as has been stated, 
from Achaia to Alexandria, earlier than was gene- 
rally practicable in winter. With the forces for 
which he was sent, he marched expeditiously and 
unexpectedly to Ptolemais. He found his father 
there with the fifteenth legion, to which he joined 
the forementioned fifth and tenth, which were the 
most distinguished in the service. Eighteen co- 
horts followed these legions. Five others came 
from Caesarea, with one troop of horsemen, and 
five other troops of horsemen from Syria. 



TITUS AND BERENICE. l6l 

The filial piety of Titus was conspicuous, when 
a report was circulated in the army that the gene- 
ral was wounded. The Romans were thrown into 
extreme disorder at the sight of Vespasian's blood ; 
and the agony of the son, with the regard they had 
for the father, spread so general a panic, that a 
large portion of the multitude left the siege in 
surprise and confusion. 

In the course of this war, Trajan also displayed 
that liberal spirit which appeared to so much ad- 
vantage in his after life. Having gained the vic- 
tory of Jotapata, he sent messengers to Vespasian 
requesting him to send his son that he might take 
possession of the city. Titus came, and his men 
immediately occupied it : but the inhabitants got 
together and offered the Romans battle in the 
narrow streets. The women also threw whatever 
came to hand, and with the assistance of the fight- 
ing men held out for six hours. It endedjn total 
defeat, and the slaughter of young and old, partly 
in the open air, and partly in their own houses. 

At this time Josephus delivered himself up to 
the Romans. As the brave are generous, his af- 
flictions and his age excited the pity of Titus, who 
reflected also like a philosopher, that no condition 
of human life is certain. So arbitrary is the power 
of fortune, and so rapid the vicissitudes of war, 
that he who but a while ago was fighting, has fallen 
into the hands of his enemies. By uttering these 
sentiments aloud he brought others to the same 
compassionate feeling with himself, and excited a 
general commiseration for Josephus. The histo- 
rian, who tells his own tale with the utmost mo- 
desty, addressed a speech to Vespasian after he 
had desired all but Titus and two of their friends 

M 



162 ON THE CHARACTERS OF 

to withdraw. It contains a very remarkable pas- 
sage. He tells the Roman general, that though 
he only thinks he has taken Josephus captive, that 
Josephus is actually come as a messenger of great 
tidings : and that had he not been sent by God, he 
knew the law of the Jews under certain circum- 
stances, and how it becomes generals to die. Now by 
the law of the Jews is generally understood the law 
of Moses ; but self-murder, in preference to slavery 
under heathens, is no where to be found as a maxim 
of that law. It is probable that the allusion is to 
some doctrine of the Pharisees, Essenes, or Hero- 
dians, or to some strained interpretation substituted 
for the just consequences to be drawn from the law 
of God as delivered by Moses. Josephus did not 
on this occasion obtain his liberty from Vespasian : 
but suits of clothes and many precious gifts were 
bestowed on him, with much personal civility. 
This mild and obliging conduct was continued 
under the influence of Titus, who contributed his 
full share to the honours conferred on him. 

The valour of Titus in the expedition against 
Tarichese is recorded in the third book of the 
Jewish war, chap. 10. Trajan had arrived with four 
hundred horsemen before the general battle. As 
the reputation of the victory would be diminished 
by sharing it with so many, the soldiery, inflamed 
by a spirited harangue of Titus, fell into an ex- 
traordinary fury. Titus made his own horse march 
first against the enemy, and the others followed 
with a great noise, extending themselves on the 
plain to the width of the enemy's front. This 
manoeuvre made them appear much more numerous 
than they really were. The Jews soon fell back, 
and Titus pressed upon the hindmost with much 



TITUS AND BERENICE. 163 

slaughter. . Some he fell upon in crowds, others 
he confronted, and trod them down as they stood 
encumbered by their own numbers. He cut off 
their retreat to the wall, and turned them back 
into the plain : till at last they forced a passage by 
their own weight, and escaped into the city, the 
tumult in which was extreme. Titus made another 
speech to his soldiers while under the wall, in 
which he called to them not to delay when God 
was giving the Jews up to them. He appealed for 
the certainty of victory, to the noise within the 
city, where those who had got away from the Ro- 
mans were in an uproar against one another. As 
soon as he had finished his speech he leaped upon 
his horse, rode to the lake, and was the first to 
enter the city, but was immediately supported by 
his people. After the city was taken, the slaughter 
continued : for the foreigners who had not fled, 
made opposition. The natives were killed without 
fighting : for they abstained in the hope that Titus 
would extend his right hand as a pledge of am- 
nesty, which they the more expected, as conscious 
that they had not consented to the war. When 
the authors of the revolt were slain, Titus stopped 
the further effusion of blood, and took pity on the 
innocent inhabitants. The Roman affairs, and the 
tumults which took place under Galba, Otho, and 
Vitellius, are touched on by Josephus, but the 
detail is given by Tacitus, Suetonius, and Dio. 

In the fifth book, chap. 2., Josephus gives the 
order of Titus's army on his march through the 
enemy's country, states his arrival at Jerusalem, 
the great danger to which he was exposed, and his 
extraordinary valour. The auxiliaries sent by the 
kings marched first, with all the other auxiliaries 

M 2 



164 ON THE CHARACTERS OF 

following them ; then those who were to prepare 
the roads, and measure out the camp. Next came 
the commanders' baggage, protected by the other 
soldiers completely armed. Titus himself followed 
with another select body, after him the pike-men, 
and after them the horse belonging to that legion. 
It was the Roman usage for the general to go in 
state, in the front of his army. Titus marched be- 
fore the main body through Samaria to Gophna, a 
city garrisoned by Roman soldiers, which had 
formerly been taken by his father. After a night's 
lodging, he marched on another day's march, and 
encamped in what the Jews called the Valley of 
Thorns, near a village whose name meant the Hill 
of Saul, about thirty furlongs from Jerusalem. In 
his way to the city with a small band he was inter- 
cepted ; and many darts were thrown at him while 
he was without head-piece or breast-plate : for he 
went out to reconnoitre, not to fight. But they all 
passed aside without hurting him, or even touch- 
ing his body. Josephus says that they seemed to 
miss him on purpose, and only to hiss as they 
passed by him. As he marched forward, his op- 
ponents flew off in great numbers, while the few 
who shared his danger kept close to him, though 
wounded on their backs and sides. Their only 
chance of escape was to assist Titus in forcing a 
passage, that he might not be encompassed before 
he could get away. He succeeded, and returned 
in safety to his camp. On another occasion, dur- 
ing a sally of the Jews, Titus was left with a few 
others in the midst of an acclivity. His friends de- 
spised their own danger, and were ashamed to desert 
their general : but they endeavoured to dissuade 
him from running into such dangers. The Jews 



TITUS AND BERENICE. 165 

they represented as desperate, and fond of dying. 
They ought therefore to be met by the common 
soldiery. He was commander in chief, and lord 
of the habitable globe, on whose safety the public 
interests all hung : his fortunes were too important 
to be risked in sudden skirmishes with the enemy. 
These suggestions Titus seemed not even to hear ; 
but opposed those who ran on him, and smote them 
on the face ; forced them back, and slew them. 
He fell upon great numbers as they marched down 
the hill, and thrust them forward. His opponents 
were so astonished at his courage and his strength, 
that they could not fly directly to the city, but 
declined from him on both sides, and pressed after 
those that fled up the hill. Still he fell upon their 
flank, and arrested their fury. In the mean time, 
disorder and terror fell upon the Romans, who 
were fortifying their camp at the top of the hill, 
on seeing the flight of those who had deserted 
Titus. The whole legion was dispersed, as think- 
ing that the sallies of the Jews were insupportable, 
and that Titus was himself put to flight : for they 
conceived that had it been otherwise, the body 
would never have been dispersed. This, however, 
was soon retrieved : Titus continued to press on 
those that were near him, and enabled the legion 
to return and fortify their camp. He and his 
chosen few still opposed the enemy, and prevented 
them from doing farther mischief. Josephus says, 
that if he may be allowed neither to add any thing 
out of flattery, nor to diminish any thing out of 
envy, but to speak the plain truth, Caesar twice 
delivered that entire legion out of jeopardy. The 
moral he inculcates is, that the success of wars and 
the danger of kings are under the providence of 

m 3 



166 ON THE CHARACTERS OF 

God. It is singular that he should call Titus both 
a king and Caesar, while Vespasian was alive, and 
Titus no more than the emperor's son, and the 
general of the Roman army. Josephus probably 
considered him as associated in majesty with his 
father, in consequence of the dreams declaring 
them both kings, which the historian had recorded 
in book iii. chap. Q. We must remember here, 
that the Roman emperors never assumed that title ; 
but the Jews gave it promiscuously, even to te- 
trarchs, as in the case of Archelaus in the New 
Testament. " But when he heard that Archelaus 
did reign in Judea in the room of his father Herod, 
he was afraid to go thither." — Matthew, chap. ii. 
" Pilate saith unto them, shall I crucify your king? 
The chief priest answered, We have no king but 
Caesar." — John, chap. xix. So Peter states what 
Christianity requires on this subject : " Submit 
yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's 
sake : whether it be to the king, as supreme ; or 
unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him 
for the punishment of evil doers, and for the praise 
of them that do well." — 1 Pet. chap. ii. 

Titus always exhibited an anxious concern to 
save Jerusalem ; and would have done so, had he 
not been overruled by the counsels of Providence 
for the fulfilment of prophecy. On the fifth day 
of the siege, when no signs of peace came from the 
Jews, he divided his legions and began to raise 
banks, both at the tower of Antonia*, and at John's 
Monument. But knowing that the preservation or 
destruction of the city would be his own gain or 

* This tower of Antonia stood higher than the floor of the 
temple, or court adjoining; so that they descended thence 
into the temple. 



TITUS AND BERENICE. l6j 

loss, while he pursued the siege earnestly, he left 
no means untried to bring the Jews to a sense of 
their error, and mixed good counsel with military 
operations. The temple was the peculiar object 
of his care. He was deeply affected with its 
danger, for which he reproached John and his 
party bitterly. " Have you not, vile wretches as 
you are, put up this partition-wall before your 
sanctuary by our permission ?" The wall of se- 
paration between Jews and gentiles, with its pillars 
and inscription, and all the other appurtenances of 
the temple, are fully described by the historian, 
" Have you not been permitted to erect pillars at 
due distances, and to engrave a prohibition on them 
in Greek, and in your own tongue, that no fo- 
reigner should go beyond that wall ? If any do so, 
have we not given you leave to kill him, though 
he were a Roman ? And what do you do now, 
pernicious caitiffs ? Why do you trample on dead 
bodies in this temple ? Why do you pollute it with 
the blood of foreigners, and even of your own Jews? 
I appeal to the gods of my own country, and to 
every god that ever had regard to this place, 
which now seems to be disregarded by all of them ; 
I appeal to my own army, to those Jews who are 
now with me, and even to yourselves, that I do not 
compel you to defile this sanctuary ; and if you 
will but change the place of fighting, no Roman 
shall come near or offer any affront to it : nay, 
more, I will endeavour to preserve your holy house 
in spite of yourselves." It is clear therefore that 
these seditious Jews were the immediate instru- 
ments of their own destruction, and that the con- 
flagration of their city and temple was, humanly 
speaking, the result of their own devices. Both. 

m 4 



168 ON THE CHARACTERS OF 

here and elsewhere, Josephus shows how earnest 
and constant were the endeavours of Titus to save 
both. On another occasion, he commanded part 
of his army to quench the fire, and to make a road 
for the more easy marching of the legions. He 
then assembled the commanders, and consulted 
with them what should be done about the holy 
house. Some thought it would be best to demolish 
it, because the Jews were in the habit of assembling 
there, and would never abstain from rebellion while 
it was standing. Others gave it as their opinion, 
that it might be saved if the Jews would leave it, 
and not make it a depot of arms : but if they per- 
sisted in making it the seat of war, it must be con- 
sidered not as a temple, but as a citadel ; and the 
impiety of burning it would be on the heads of 
those who should compel that measure. But Titus 
said, that although the Jews should fight from that 
holy house, we should not take vengeance on things 
inanimate, instead of the men themselves ; nor 
would he vote for setting fire to so vast a work, 
because the mischief would recoil on the Romans, 
to whose government it would be highly orna- 
mental. Fronto, Alexander, and Cerealis grew 
bold on this declaration, and agreed to the opinion 
of their general. The assembly was then dissolved, 
and Titus issued orders to the officers, that the rest 
of the forces should lie still, and the most cou- 
rageous be selected for this attack. 

Titus's speeches, on all occasions, to his troops, 
are highly animated. He considered that the 
alacrity of soldiers in war is chiefly excited by 
hopes and fair words : that encouragement and 
promises make men forget their hazards, and some- 
times even despise death. He begins an exhort- 



TITUS AND BERENICE. 169 

ation to his army thus: — " My fellow-soldiers, 
to exhort men to what has no peril, is on that 
very account inglorious both to them and to the 
speaker, as it proves his cowardice as well as 
theirs." The speech is long, and exhibits through- 
out the notions the Romans had of death, and of 
their happy state who die bravely in war, contrasted 
with that of those who die ignobly in their beds 
by sickness. Ammiauus Marcellinus speaks thus 
of the Alani : — " Judicatur ibi beatus, qui in 
prcelio profuderit animam : senescentes enim et 
fortuitis mortibus mundo digressos, ut degeneres 
et jgnavos conviciis atrocibus insectantur : nee 
quidquam est quod clarius jactent, quam homine 
quolibet occiso : proque exuviis gloriosis, inter- 
fectorum avulsis capitibus detractas pelles pro 
phaleris jumentis accommodant bellatoriis. — Lib. 
xxxi. cap. 2. Strabo ascribes the same opinions to 
the Massagetse, in his account of whom he abridges 
Herodotus. The whole passage is curious, and 
shows how superstitions reciprocally connect them- 
selves : — 

Aeyelou Ss xoti toiowtol ^rep) tmv Metro- ay stwv on xahi- 
x.qvo~iv ol pev opYj- nveg h' avrvov TzeViw oi $a eArj, a vtoiovq-iv ol 
vrolapo'r o\ §£, rag Iv rolg sAstn vycrovg' jxaXtfa Ss <pao~i rov 
' Apafcov wolapov xalaxXufyiv tyjv yjuoqav Tzavlayvi <rp£*2Jojxsvov lx- 
7r*7r7ov7a he rolg (xev aKXoig fopao-w e\g rt}V a\Ky\v tyjv 'crpog 
apxlovg §uhot,o~o~uVy sv) de fxovoo tnpog rov xoXnov tov tr Tpxaviov 
Seov he rjXiov (xovov riyovvlotr rouroo he l7nro§v1ovQ-r ya^el V exag-og 
piav, xpwvlai he xou ralg aXXoov ova a^avcog' o he (uyvv[j,svo$ Tp 
aKKolqia, tyjv <papergotv e%ap1v(rag ex t% apafag ipavegwg y,iyvv1ar 
Savalog he vomeral wag aulolg &pi?og, or cut yripao-avreg xaraxo- 
TTwo-i pela. twv vrpoGaleloov xgewv, xou ava[ju^ fipwSwo-i* rov; he voo-co 
Savovlag plirlou<riv c/jg acre^elg, xou a%lov$ uno Ifotyiobv fZeGgwoSai' 
ayaSo) he hnoTai xou vregor r6%oig he %gu)VTou, xou ^a^alqaigy 



170 ON THE CHARACTERS OF 

not) Swgotfy, xot) auyuqsa-i yoCky.c£\$' ^covui Se civto~i$ s'hti 
Xgwal, xot) §io&Y}fj(,ctlu h roils [lol^ou? oi T£ 'h-jroi xgvo-ox&favoi, 
\uurya\\^^ 8s %pu<rol* agyvgog ^ ou ylvslott txciq uvrolg, (rlfygog 
8' 6\lyog' yjxXvAc, $s xct) yguvog ocfSovog. — Lib. xi. 

Plutarch, De Alexandri Magni Fortuna aut 
Virtute, imputes similar sentiments and practices 
respecting death to the Sogdiani, the neighbours 
of the Massagetse : — 

T>jv 8s ' AXs£av8pou -sxa»8s/av av e7n£XeV)j£, 'Ygxotvovg yotpsiv 
£7ruidev<rs' hoc) yscogyelv s8/8a£sv 'Apa^aoa-lovg' not) ^ioydiotvoug 
ensure izotTeqctg rgetpeiv, xot) [ay) (poveveiv xa» YIeg(rotg (re£e<r$ou 
[jui)tsqol$, olWoL [ay) yocf^elv. — Aoyog a. 

The religion of the Roman camp consisted 
almost entirely in worshipping and swearing by the 
ensigns. The Romans, accordingly, on the flight 
of the seditious into the city, and the burning of 
the holy house itself, brought their ensigns to the 
temple, and placed them opposite to its eastern 
gate. They offered sacrifices to them, received 
Titus with acclamations, and hailed him Imperator, 
as was their usual practice on any signal success, 
and the slaughter of many enemies. There were 
hiding-places, or secret chambers, about the holy 
house, the walls of which are supposed to be still 
traceable. On the fifth day after the above cele- 
bration, the priests found themselves compelled by 
hunger to abandon these retreats. They were 
brought to Titus by the guards, and pleaded for 
their lives : but he replied, that the period of 
pardon was past. It was only on the account of 
the temple that they could hope to be saved, and 
that was destroyed. It was part of the priestly 
office to perish with the house to which they 
were attached. He ordered them to be put to 
death. As for the Jewish tyrants, a bridge parted 



TITUS AND BERENICE. 171 

them from Titus. The multitude stood on each 
side : those of the Jewish nation about Simon and 
John, in the hope of pardon ; the Romans in 
curious expectation awaiting the reception of their 
prayer. Titus charged his soldiers to restrain their 
fury, and to let their darts alone. He then ad- 
dressed a speech to them, through an interpreter 
appointed by himself, as a sign that he was the 
conqueror. He hoped that they were now satiated 
with the miseries of their country. They had no 
just notions either of the Roman power or of their 
own weakness ; but with the rashness and violence 
of madmen, had brought their people, their city, 
and their temple to destruction by their attempts. 
He upbraided them with their ingratitude to 
the Romans, who had permitted the Jews by an 
especial privilege to collect their sacred tribute, 
and send it to Jerusalem. 

On the arrival of Titus in the city, he admired 
its various places of strength, and especially the 
strong towers which the tyrants had so imprudently 
relinquished. When he saw their height, the size 
and solidity of the stones, the exactness of their 
joints, their breadth and length, he acknowledged 
that the conquest of the city was to be ascribed to 
God, who was his assistant in this war. He con- 
ceived that only God could have ejected the Jews 
from their strong holds ; and that neither human 
hands, nor machines, the work of such hands, 
could have overthrown such towers. This was his 
language to his friends. His conduct was consis- 
tent with his usual generosity : he gave their 
liberty to those who had been left in bondage by 
the tyrants in the prisons. 

He then thanked the army, and distributed 



17^ ON THE CHARACTERS OF 

rewards. The list of all who had performed great 
exploits in the war was read. He called them to 
him by their names, commended them publicly, 
and seemed to rejoice as much in their prowess, as 
in his own. 

But the celebration of his brother Domitian's 
birth-day, and that of his father, tarnished the 
honours of his usual clemency. He was at this 
time at Caesarea ; and considered the splendour of 
this solemnity as a fit occasion for inflicting the 
principal part of the punishment intended for the 
Jews. Some were slain in fighting with wild beasts, 
some in conflict with one another, and others were 
burnt. The number of those who perished in 
honour of this holiday exceeded two thousand five 
hundred. After this, he went to Berytus, a 
Roman colony, the coins of which are still extant. 
He next went to Antioch. The people were so 
delighted, that they could not keep within their 
walls ; but advanced more than thirty furlongs to 
give him the meeting. They received him with 
acclamations, and besought him to expel the Jews 
from their city. He heard their petition patiently, 
but did not yield to their request. He did not 
stay at Antioch, but continued his progress im- 
mediately to Zeugma on the Euphrates, whither 
messengers came to him from Vologeses, king of 
Parthia, and brought him a crown of gold, on his 
victory over the Jews. He accepted this, en- 
tertained the messengers, and then returned to 
Antioch. He refused a second application against 
the Jews of Antioch, and permitted them to con- 
tinue in the enjoyment of their former privileges. 
He then departed for Egypt. In the course of his 
progress he went to Jerusalem, and was greatly 



TITUS AND BERENICE. 173 

moved at the sight of the ruins, and the remem- 
brance of its ancient splendour. So far was he 
from boasting of his conquest, that he grieved 
over the ravages he had made. He cursed the 
authors of the revolt, who had brought such a 
punishment on the city. Such a calamity he did 
not consider as necessary to establish his own 
character for martial courage. 

Josephus gives an account of his visit to the 
sabbatic river, in the course of his travels. It was 
once very famous : we need scarcely say it has 
disappeared. Instances of periodical fountains 
and rivers are not uncommon in modern geo- 
graphy ; where they are generally found in such 
positions as to enable philosophy to account with 
some probability for their phenomena. But none 
of their periods are that of an exact week. They 
will probably for the most part depend either on 
ordinary tides, or on spring tides. According to 
Josephus, this river ran every seventh day, and 
rested on six : according to Pliny, it ran six days 
successively, and rested on the seventh : but it is 
to be observed, that in neither author is the seventh 
day of the river the sabbath of the Jews. After 
Titus's journey into Egypt, he passed over the 
desert very suddenly, and came to Alexandria. 
He then determined to go to Rome by sea. His 
father met and received him. The citizens made 
a splendid appearance, and conceived the greatest 
joy on seeing Vespasian and his two sons, Titus 
and Domitian, reunited. After a few days, they 
determined to have but one triumph, common to 
both. The senate had, indeed, decreed a separate 
triumph to each ; but as their exploits were di- 
rected to the same object, they chose to mingle 



174 ON THE CHARACTERS OF 

glories, and present themselves conjointly to the 
eyes of the multitude. 

But Titus, with all his virtue, was no Joseph. 
He seems to have caught the contagion of pleasure 
from his father. We may suppose that the blood 
of the Absolutes was always impatient ; as we have 
some reason to believe that it still continues to be. 
The passions of Titus broke forth without restraint 
in his youth. One can only wish that Queen 
Berenice, of whose beauty he was enamoured in 
Palestine, had been more worthy of his affection. 
Her birth, and marriage to Herod, have been 
already mentioned. After his death she was 
married again to Polemon. On this Josephus 
remarks : — Ov pjv Itt* ^oxb o-uvs^eivsv 6 yajxoj, u\Xot 

BspvtxYi 8i' ocKO\ct<rlav, cb$ 'itycurctv, xoclctXsl'UTSi tov TIoXe[j.ct)vcc. — 

Antiq. Jud. lib. xx. 

Ambition was evidently a considerable ingredient 
in her amours. She formed intrigues to set the 
crown on the head of Vespasian, from whom if he 
came to the empire, she had more to hope than 
from his competitors. We learn this from Tacitus. 
" Mox per occultos suorum nuntios excitus ab 
urbe Agrippa, ignaro adhuc Vitellio, celeri navi- 
gatione properaverat. Nee minore animo Regina 
Berenice partes juvabat, florens aetate formaque, 
et seni quoque Vespasiano magnificentia munerum 
grata." — Hist. lib. ii. cap. 81. 

Agrippa and Berenice made their voyage to 
Rome in the fourth consulship of Vespasian, and 
in the 72 d year of Christ. Josephus makes her to 
be sixteen when her father died, in the third year 
of the Emperor Claudius, and the 44th of Christ. 
She was therefore forty-four on her arrival. Xiphi- 
linus, in the life of Vespasian, tells the story thus : — 



TITUS AND BERENICE. 17^ 

Tol$ 8s TlocpSoig 7roX£jU.o)^eT(ri rzpbs Tivaj, xa» 1% sra^ auloO cryjtx- 
\Lixy\oLc, dsYi§si<nv, oux l£o>}$*j(rsv, gl7ra>v, oti ov I&goo-Yjxsi cuvtco t<x 
ctWoTQiot. ■GTokuvrpayfAOveiv Begovlxr) ds Ic^vgixg rs rjvSsj, xai Sia 
touto x<xi eg tyjv 'Pw^>jv jxsra too aScA^ou row 'Aygi7nr<x rjA$£* 
xa* 6 psv $-par>jy<xwv Tifxwv yj^ka)^yj, tj Ss Iv tw -sraXaTKW wxijcre, 
xa) ra; T/tw (rvvsylyvsro. Epitome DioniS. 

Titus is supposed to have promised marriage. 
However that may be, the connection rilled the city 
with discontent and popular clamour. That she 
was a princess of the Jewish nation probably ren- 
dered the public voice so loud against her. Her 
lover was not so abandoned to his passion, as to 
brave the rage of popular prejudice. He wisely 
resolved to sacrifice his private pleasures to political 
prudence, and the peace of the city. 

Suetonius describes his mode of living at this 
time, and their reluctant parting, with a brevity 
and point which might well pass for Tacitus : — 
"Nee minus libido, propter exoletorum et spado- 
num greges, propterque insignem reginse Berenices 
amorem, cui etiam nuptias pollicitus ferebatur. 

Berenicem statim ab urbe dimisit, invitus 

invitam." — Titus. 

Aurelius Victor copies Suetonius almost verbally 
in his Epitome : — " Denique ut subiit pondus re- 
gium, Berenicem nuptias suas sperantem regredi do- 
mum, et enervatorum greges abire prgecepit." He 
had said just before, " In quibus Caecinam consu- 
larem adhibitum ccenge, vix dum triclinio egressum, 
ob suspicionem stupratae Berenices uxoris suae, ju- 
gulari jussit." The substance of this passage also 
is taken from Suetonius, and will account for the 
carelessness of Aurelius Victor in calling her his 
wife and mistress in two passages nearly consecutive. 
In the first passage of Suetonius she is neither 



176 ON THE CHARACTERS OF 

mentioned nor alluded to; conspiracy, not adultery, 
being there laid as the ground of Aulus Caecina's 
assassination. Aurelius Victor, for some reason 
or other, chose to relate the fact as given by 
Suetonius, but to assign a different motive; and 
make Berenice lavish of her favours. In this un- 
gallant humour, he calls her the wife of Titus, 
either negligently, or to enhance her guilt: but 
when he comes to a passage where Suetonius 
states her actual condition with respect to the 
emperor, he gives the fact as it lay ready to his 
hand. 

There is some little confusion as to the time of 
the divorce : whether under Vespasian, or after 
Titus had taken possession of the crown. Dion, 
or his epitomiser Xiphilinus, are supposed to place 
it in the former reign, contrary to the authorities of 
Suetonius and Aurelius Victor. But it will be 
found that Xiphilinus, though no other author 
does so, mentions Berenice's being twice sent away ; 
once under Vespasian, and again under Titus : 
and this will, in the main, reconcile his account 
with the generally received winding-up of the in- 
trigue. He relates the first dismissal immediately 
after the passage quoted above, and begins the 
reign of Titus thus : — c O 81 ^ Tho$ offih outs powxdv, 

outs egoDTiKW ^ovctgXYj<rct$ e7rpa%sv, olKKu %^*jro?, Koditsq smfiov- 

§o6<tyi$, lysKsro. This statement makes the second at- 
tack on Titus's affections ineffectual. The mode of 
their ultimate parting, as stated by other historians 
to have taken place when he was emperor, is too 
generally admitted to make it credible on a single 
authority, that he ever resisted her allurements 
when present : the probability is, that he dismissed 



TITUS AND BERENICE. 177 

her, irwitus i?ivitam, daring his father's reign, with 
a promise of recal in his own : that he kept that 
promise, but that the popular objection was too 
obstinate to render perseverance safe; for his 
excesses were always tempered by prudence : and 
that when he again determined to part with 
her, by way of softening the disappointment to 
both, he again threw out a hint of better times, 
and got rid of her by representing this separ- 
ation as only temporary. But the biographers 
of the period, writing many lives with all prac- 
ticable brevity, had no room to multiply identical 
incidents ; they therefore related the beginning 
and the end of an adventure, and left the detail 
to be filled up by the sagacity or the imagination of 
the reader. 

Pliny mentions a town bearing the name of 
Berenice : — " Berenice, oppidum matris Philadel- 
phi nomine, ad quod iter a Copto diximus." — Nat. 
Hist. lib. vi. The inference from this passage, that 
Pliny concluded Ptolemy Philadelphus had built 
the city, because it bore his mother's name, is ut- 
terly unfounded. As there were several women 
of exalted rank who bore the name of Berenice, so 
were there several towns so called, probably in me- 
mory of the different princesses. 

The farewells of Titus and Berenice have fur- 
nished the French stage with tragedies from Ra- 
cine and Corneille, who were each employed by 
Henrietta of England on so unpromising a subject, 
unknown to each other. Corneille's piece failed : 
that of Racine had a run of thirty nights ; and has 
been revived on the appearance of any new actor 
and actress capable of supporting characters of 
such great difficulty. 80 supported, it has always 



178 CHARACTERS OF TITUS AND BERENICE. 

been found affecting in representation. That one 
of these great poets should have failed, and the other 
have eminently succeeded, is accounted for by the 
opposite bent of their genius. That of the one is 
strong and elevated, that of the other gentle, dex- 
trous, and elegant. The pathetic is the forte of the 
latter, the sublime of the former. 



179 



ON CESAR'S COMMENTARIES. 



Cesar was confessedly the greatest general Rome 
ever produced ; and the people of Rome were so 
renowned for their knowledge in the art of war, 
that it is equally interesting and useful to find their 
military customs traced out, and the individual ac- 
tions of so accomplished a commander recorded, in 
Commentaries written by the hero of the story. 
Nothing in this work is more striking, than the 
consummate prudence and circumspection of this 
enterprising man, especially in relation to surprises. 
He was also particularly attentive to the safety of 
his convoys, and to the maintenance of a free com- 
munication with the countries whence he received 
his supplies. Nor was he less prudent and expert 
in turning alliances to account ; as, for instance, in 
the case of that pretended one with the iEduans, 
which he made one of his principal engines to com- 
plete the reduction of Gaul. The suddenness, the 
rapidity, the disposition of his marches, have only 
been equalled by the Corsican of modern days in 
the zenith of his triumphs. From his narrative of 
his own movements when he besieged Gergovia, 
we may calculate that on one occasion he marched 
fifty miles in twenty-four hours. He exhibited 
great skill in marshalling his army in various forms, 
according to the information he was sedulous in 

N 2 



180 on cjesar's commentaries. 

procuring, as to the greater or less distance of the 
enemy. His conduct in this respect was especially 
curious and judicious, when he marched against 
the Nervians. During his celebrated campaign in 
Spain he compelled a veteran army to surrender 
as prisoners of war, without striking a blow, by a 
happy choice of posts and consummate address in 
improving the advantages afforded by the nature 
of the country. Another object of solicitude was, 
to contrive his marches in such a manner as to 
station his camp near some navigable river, and to 
secure, as has been before mentioned, a country in 
his rear, whence he could be supplied easily, and 
at a reasonable rate, with every thing necessary for 
the subsistence of his army. Intrenched encamp- 
ments formed an essential part of military discipline 
among the Romans ; and Caesar gave his sanction 
to the practice, by constantly following it in his 
wars with the Gauls. The globus, or circular order, 
was a disposition of which he speaks in his Com- 
mentaries, as highly advantageous in cases of dan- 
ger and extremity : and the Duke of Wellington 
seems to have made arrangements analogous if not 
identical, on the field of Waterloo, while waiting 
for the arrival of the Prussians. 

Pompey, in the decisive battle of Pharsalia, by 
the advice of Tfiarius, commanded his soldiers to 
receive Caesar's assault, and to sustain the shock of 
his army, without removing from their position. 
His motive for this was the opinion, that Caesar's 
men would be disordered in their advance ; and 
that his own, by not moving, would retain their 
ranks undisturbed. On this system Caesar remarks, 
that according to his own judgment, the advice 
was contrary to every principle of reason : for he 



ON C/1ESAR ? S COMMENTARIES. 1S1 

argues that there is a certain ardour and alacrity 
of spirit natural to every man when he goes into 
battle, which no commander should repress or re- 
strain, but rather should increase and push it for- 
ward. The event fully justified the general criticism, 
and proved it to be well-grounded in practice, as 
well as warranted by speculation on human cha- 
racter. . In this battle against Pompey, Csesar not 
only took advantage of his antagonist's erroneous 
theory, but surprised him by material innovations 
on the Roman manner of embattling. 
. When Caesar fought against Ariovistus and the 
Germans, he placed the best men in the wings of 
his army. This may, on the first blush, appear 
impolitic ; as the centre is likely to give way : but 
in that case, the wings will wheel upon the enemy, 
encompass, and destroy the choicest men if placed 
in their main battle. 

The ancient mode of fortification is well de- 
scribed by Caesar, especially the walls of the city 
of Bourges, in the seventh book of his wars with 
the Gauls. He used the musculus at the siege of 
Marseilles. The planks of the roof were covered 
with bricks and mortar, over which hides were laid 
to prevent the mortar from dissolving by the water 
poured down upon it by the besieged. To secure 
it from stones and fire, it was again covered over 
with thick quilted mattresses properly prepared. 
. The moving towers were a peculiar feature of 
ancient warfare. When once they were brought 
up, a place seldom held out long. Those who had 
no ground of confidence but in the height of their 
ramparts, must sink at once into despair on seeing 
the enemy in possession of an elevation to com- 
mand them. The people of Namur made a jest of 

n 3 



182 ON CiESAR's COMMENTARIES. 

Caesar' s tower, while it was at a distance : but 
when it was seen moving rapidly towards them, 
they demanded to capitulate. Caesar tells us that 
they believed it to be a prodigy ; and were utterly 
astonished that men of ordinary size should think 
of carrying so vast and heavy a machine to their 
walls. 

Caesar was a master of circumvallation. That 
formed before Alesia consisted of fascines instead 
of turf, with its parapet and fraises made of large 
stakes, whose branches were cut in points, and 
burnt at the ends, like stags' horns. The battle- 
ments he mentions were like the modern embra- 
sures for cannon. Caesar's lines being very high, 
it was indispensibly necessary to have a platform 
with a slope, in the form of steps, to prevent the 
earth from falling away. 

The following specimen of the author will best 
explain the ground enclosed between the two fosses, 
which is by far the most curious part of the block- 
ade : — "Erat uno tempore et materiari et frumen- 
tari, et tantas munitiones fieri necesse, diminutis 
nostris copiis, quae longius ab castris progredie- 
bantur : et nonnunquam opera nostra Galli tentare, 
atque eruptionem ex oppido pluribus portis facere 
summa vi conabantur. Quare ad haec rursus opera 
addendum Caesar putavit, quo minore numero mi- 
litum munitiones defendi possent. Itaque truncis 
arborum, aut admodum firmis ramis abscissis, atque 
horum dolabratis atque praeacutis cacuminibus, per- 
petuae fossae quinos pedes altae ducebantur. Hue 
illi stipites demissi, et ab inflmo revincti ne revelli 
possent, ab ramis eminebant. Quini erant ordines 
conjuncti inter se atque implicati, quo qui intra- 
verant, se ipsi acutissimis vallis induebant 



on Cesar's commentaries. 183 

Ante hos, obliquis ordinibus in quincuncem dispo- 
sitis, scrobes trium in altitudinem pedum fodie- 
bantur, paullatim angustiore ad summum fastigio. 
Hue teretes stipites feminis crassitudine, ab sum- 
mo praeacuti et praeusti, demittebantur ; ita ut non 
amplius iv. digitis ex terra eminerent. Simul con- 
flrmandi et stabiliendi caussa singuli ab infimo solo 
pedes terra exculcabantur : reliqua pars scrobis ad 
occultandas insidias viminibus ac virgultis intege- 
batur. Hujus generis octoni ordines ducti, ternos 
inter se pedes distabant. . . . Ante haec taleae pe- 
dem longae, ferreis hamis infixis, totae in terram 
infodiebantur 5 mediocribusque intermissis spatiis, 
omnibus locis disserebantur, quos Stimulos nomina- 
bant." The other line, to prevent succours from 
without, was exactly the same as this. 

The most curious and remarkable sieges on an- 
cient record are those of Plataea by the Lacedae- 
monians and Thebans ; of Syracuse by the Athe- 
nians ; of Lilybaeum, Syracuse, Carthage, and Nu- 
mantia by the Romans ; but above all, that of 
Alesia by Julius Caesar, and of Jerusalem by Titus 
Vespasian. These two last are so circumstantially 
described in all their details, the former by Caesar, 
who planned and conducted it ; the latter by Jo- 
sephus, who was an eye-witness of all that passed, 
that an attentive reader will find every thing worth 
knowing on the subject, and be qualified to form a 
clear and comprehensive judgment of the perfec- 
tion attained by the ancients, and especially by 
the Romans, in this leading branch of the military 
art. 

But the discovery of gunpowder has occasioned 
so entire a revolution in the art of war, that the 
interest felt in the perusal of these Commentaries 

n 4 



184 on cjesar's commentaries. 

would be much lessened, unless in the estimation of 
military antiquaries, were it not that the narrative 
relates simply and unaffectedly, what the author 
himself performed at the head of his army. 

Hirtius, in Praef. lib. viii. de Bello Gall, speaks 
thus respecting the execution of these works : — 
" Constat enim inter omnes, nihil tarn operose ab 
aliis esse perfectum, quod non horum elegantia 
commentariorum superetur : qui sunt editi, ne 
scientia tantarum rerum scriptoribus deesset ; 
adeoque probantur omnium judicio, ut praerepta, 
non praebita facultas scriptoribus videatur." 

The following is the character Cicero gives of 
them, in Bruto, cap. 75. : — " Atque etiam com- 
mentarios quosdam scripsit rerum suarum ; valde 
quidem, inquit, probandos. Nudi enim sunt, recti, 
et venusti, omni ornatu orationis, tamquam veste, 
detracto. Sed dum voluit alios habere parata, 
unde sumerent, qui vellent scribere historiam : in- 
eptis gratum fortasse fecit, qui volent ilia calamistris 
inurere : sanos quidem homines a scribendo de- 
terruit. Nihil enim est in historia pura et illustri 
brevitate dulcius." 

But these opinions of Hirtius and Cicero re- 
specting Caesar's Commentaries, were not without 
dissentients of high rank in the critical world. 
Asinius Pollio thought them careless, and often 
untrue : and he considered this as accounted for 
in some cases, by credulity on Caesar's part, when 
unfounded or exaggerated statements were made 
to him ; in other cases, by his personal share in 
the transactions recorded, which led him to give, 
perhaps unconsciously, a false colouring to his 
own exploits, either from self-love or lapse of me- 
mory. The imputation thus conveyed by Pollio, 



on Cesar's commentaries. 185 

has been attributed to his jealousy as a contem- 
porary author, and a member of the same profes- 
sion, eclipsed by the glory of the great conqueror. 
But these censures seem unnecessarily ascribed to 
any sinister motive. Pollio tracked him through- 
out his whole career, as a captain, a historian, and 
an orator. An observer so acute, and so much in 
the secret, might become acquainted with many 
circumstances stated erroneously or even falsely 
by the author, for want of caution or the means of 
verifying them : he might have convicted him even 
of some fabulous narratives, and yet have left much 
for us to admire, much from which we may derive 
instruction. 

It has been affirmed that Caesar did not write 
the three books of the civil war, and even that 
Suetonius was the author of the seven books on the 
Gallic War. But Yossius has vindicated Caesar's 
title to the authorship of the Commentaries, as they 
stand in the editions, though he does not vouch 
for his accuracy or veracity on all occasions. 

There are few great works, of which literary envy 
and malignity have not endeavoured to despoil their 
authors. The testimony of ancient writers, the pas- 
sages quoted by them from these Commentaries, 
leave Caesar in full and unquestionable possession 
of his property in them. There may be faults in 
him as an author, there may be local corruption in 
the manuscripts : but the works have come down to 
us as genuine, and as worthy of our acceptance in 
point both of matter and style, as is consistent with 
the frailty of human nature when unassisted. The 
opinion that the extant Commentaries are not Cae- 
sar's may possibly have arisen from a confusion of 
circumstances between two works. It is believed 



186 on cjesar's commentaries. 

that he wrote Ephemerides, containing a journal of 
his life ; but they are lost. Servius has quoted a 
very remarkable circumstance from this lost work : 
— " Hoc de historia tractum est : namque Caius 
Julius Caesar, cum dimicaret in Gallia, et ab hoste 
raptus, equo ejus portaretur armatus, occurrit qui- 
dam ex hostibus, qui eum nosset, et insultans ait, 
Ccesar, Ccesar : quod Gallorum lingua dimitte si- 
gnificat : et ita factum est ut dimitteretur. Hoc 
autem ipse Caesar in Ephemeride sua dicit, ubi 
propriam commemorat felicitatem." — In JEn. lib. 
xi. ver. 743. 

Plutarch, in Caesare, quotes the Ephemerides ; 
by which he probably meant the work referred to 
by Servius. It is true, the substance of the passage 
occurs in the fourth book of the Commentaries ; 
but the same personal anecdotes must frequently 
have been told in both works. Had Plutarch not 
meant the Ephemerides, he would scarcely have 
adopted the term in preference to another in com- 
mon use, signifying Commentaries. Thus Strabo : 

Lib. iv. init. T. 

Frontinus relates many of Caesar's stratagems 
not mentioned in the Commentaries ; and must in 
all probability have read them in the Journal ; the 
loss of which must be lamented by readers of every 
class, and especially by those who consider biogra- 
phy among the most interesting of studies, and 
find more to profit and delight in the history of the 
statesman's private mind, than in the official papers 
of his administration. 



187 



ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS. — ON HEROD, 
MARIAMNE, AND HEROD THE TETRARCH. 



Josephus says at the end of his Antiquities of 
the Jews, that no person was so well qualified as 
himself, to deliver these accounts to the Greeks 
with accuracy. Those of his own nation freely 
acknowledged, that he far exceeded them in the 
learning belonging to Jews, to which he had taken 
much pains in adding that of the Greeks. Though 
his usual habit had been to speak his own tongue, 
he thoroughly understood the Greek language, but 
could not pronounce it with sufficient exactness. 
The Jews held an opinion, that there is no merit 
either in the acquisition of foreign languages, or in 
smoothness and elegance of composition. They 
looked on that kind of accomplishment as common, 
and easily acquired by slaves as well as by free 
men. At the end of this work, the author de- 
clares his intention, God willing, to give the public 
an abridgment of the Jewish war, and to carry 
the narrative down to the day on which he is 
writing, which is in the thirteenth year of Domi- 
tian, a. d. 93. It is not known whether he carried 
this project into execution. His motive probably 
was, to correct several mistakes in the first two 
books of the War, written in his youth, when 
he was comparatively an incompetent antiquary. 
Many passages occur in authors, avowedly quoted 



188 

from him, which are not now extant. They might 
possibly be contained in that compendium. Yet 
many of his references to works of his own, which 
have not come down to us, and many of his errors, 
belong to still earlier times. Neither he, nor any 
one else, ever quotes this abridgment. The pro- 
bability therefore rather inclines against the public- 
ation. He wrote his own life as an Appendix to 
the Antiquities, more than seven years after they 
were finished ; and this might perhaps supersede 
the other work. At the same time, he announces 
another intended treatise, in not less than three 
books, concerning God and his essence, and con- 
cerning the Jewish laws, why, according to them, 
some things were permitted to the Jews, and others 
prohibited. This last he had promised, should 
God afford him time for it, at the conclusion of 
his preface to the Antiquities. We have not much 
reason to believe that he ever published any of 
them. The death of his friends at court, Vespa- 
sian, Titus, and Domitian, the accession of Nerva 
and Trajan, with whom he had no personal ac- 
quaintance, his removal from Rome to Judea, with 
the subsequent course of events, might easily inter- 
rupt his progress as an author. 

The great value of Josephus consists in the 
testimony borne by an opponent to many facts of 
Gospel history. It is stated in Scripture, that 
John the Baptist was beheaded by order of the 
younger Herod. Josephus confirms this : and 
mentions Herodias by name, as his brother's wife, 
whom Herod had married after divorcing his own. 
She was the daughter of Aretas, king of the 
Petrean Arabians. Her husband was not dead 
when Herod took her. Aretas made war against 



ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 189 

him on account of this dishonourable conduct. 
Herod's whole army was destroyed in a battle. 
His adultery might sufficiently account for the 
divine displeasure ; but Josephus attributes it to 
his cruelty towards John. He also relates that 
Herod lost his kingdom, and was banished to Lyons 
with Herodias. He states in the eighteenth book, 
that many of the Jews considered this destruction 
as a judgment from God for the murder of a good 
man, who had taught them virtue in their actions, 
and piety in their sentiments. He then enters into a 
discussion on the efficacy of baptism to purific- 
ation, externally in reference to the body, internally 
on the supposition that the soul is previously 
purified by righteousness, as preached by John. 
Herod is represented as fearing that his persuasive 
power might raise sedition ; for the people seemed 
entirely at John's disposal. By way of prevention, 
Herod sent him a prisoner to the castle of Ma- 
chaerus, where he was put to death. Josephus goes 
on to speak of our Saviour : — " There was about 
this time one Jesus, a wise man, if he may be 
called a man ; for he did marvellous works. He 
taught those who were willing to receive his doc- 
trine, drawing over to him many, both Jews and 
Gentiles. He was the Christ." 

Josephus is principally to be received as a wit- 
ness against himself. The head and front of John's 
offending was the declaration, It is not lawful for 
thee to have thy brother's wife. 

Josephus also relates, that Jerusalem was taken 
in the reign of Vespasian, forty years after the 
Jews had dared to put Jesus to death. James, 
bishop of Jerusalem, the brother of our Lord, was 
thrown down from the temple at the same time, 



190 ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 

and slain by stoning. But the most striking ad- 
mission on the part of the Jewish historian is, that 
when Pilate, instigated by the principal men among 
the Jews, had decreed that he who was the Christ 
should be crucified, those who had loved him from 
the beginning did not forsake him. He appeared 
to them alive the third day after his death, as the 
inspired prophets had foretold. The famous name 
of Christians taken from him, and the sect, are still 
in being. 

Tacitus, in his History, lib. v. cap. 2-9., retails 
so many crude and contradictory stories relating to 
the original of Jerusalem, that one cannot but 
wonder his good sense did not revolt from such 
absurdities. For instance, he took the African 
Ethiopians under Cepheus, who are known to have 
been blacks, for the parents of the Jews, known to 
have been whites. Whenever he comes nearest to 
the truth, he gives a disguised version of Josephus. 
As thus: — " David first cast the Jebusites out 
of Jerusalem, and called it by his own name. Un- 
der our forefather Abraham it was called Solyma. 
Some say that after that time, Homer mentions it 
by that name of Solyma. Now the whole time 
from the warfare under Joshua our general, against 
the Canaanites, and from that war in which he 
overcame them and distributed the land among 
the Hebrews, this whole time was five hundred and 
fifteen years." — Joseph. AntiqAih. vii. cap. 3. sect. 3. 
" Alii, Judaeorum initia, Solymos, carminibus Ho- 
meri celebratam gentem, conditam urbem Hiero- 
solyma nomine suo fecisse. Plurimi auctores 
consentiunt, orta per iEgyptum tabe, quae corpora 
fcedaret, Regem Bocchorim, adito Hammonis 
oraculo, remedium petentem, purgare Regnum et 



ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 191 

id genus hominum, ut invisum Deis, alias in terras 
avehere jussum." — Tacitus, History of the Jews, 
lib. v. cap. 2, 3. This latter doctrine is very dif- 
ferent from that of Josephus, who truly observes 
on this occasion, that the gods are not angry at the 
imperfections of bodies, but at wicked practices. 
Tacitus represents Moses to have credit given to 
him, as Duct ccelesti. He therefore admits at least 
a profession on the part of Moses, that he received 
his laws from God. He relates, that Moses dis- 
covered a plentiful vein of water for the Jews. This 
he probably took from Josephus, who represents the 
relief as a miracle, Antiq. lib. iii. cap. 1. sect. 7. 
But if Tacitus suppresses one miracle, he substitutes 
another : for he states, that six hundred thousand 
men, to which number the Jews amounted, tra- 
velled above two hundred miles in six days, over 
the deserts of Arabia, and conquered Judea on 
the seventh. 

The Israelites were to be kept separate from the 
idolatrous nations by circumcision and other cere- 
monies. This Tacitus represents as esteeming 
whatever is sacred among the Romans to be pro- 
fane, and establishing what in other nations is 
unlawful and impure. The veneration said to 
have been paid in the Temple to the image of an 
ass, is refuted by Tacitus himself in the very next 
section : — "Igitur nulla simulacra urbibus suis, ne- 
dum templis, sinunt." Again, on occasion of 
Pompey's entry into the temple, after the conquest 
of Jerusalem : — " Inde vulgatum, nulla intus De- 
um effigie vacuam sedem et inania arcana. 55 That 
the ox, worshipped in Egypt for the god Apis, 
was slain as a victim by the Jews, is a mere random 
guess, in the spirit of heathenism. He says, they 



192 ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 

abstain altogether from the flesh of swine ; and 
gives as a reason, that an animal, subject to the 
same leprous disease which infected their whole 
nation, is not deemed proper food. Now it is very 
unlikely that they should have perpetuated by an 
ordinance the memorial of an epidemic calamity, 
which must have rendered them odious to strangers, 
and subjected them to general scorn. 

The Jews had originally but one solemn fast in 
the year ; the day of expiation. The frequent 
fastings of the modern Pharisees probably led 
Tacitus to represent them so differently. So un- 
leavened bread was used only at the Passover. 
He represents it as in general use. 

Tacitus seems either not to know, what any Jew 
or any Christian could have told, or for some rea- 
son to dissemble his knowledge, that the seventh 
day and the seventh year of rest were instituted, to 
commemorate the rest of the Sabbath, after six 
days of creation. It is a most uncandid hypothe- 
sis, that the seventh year is devoted to repose, in 
consequence of their natural propensity to sloth. 
He seems never to have heard of their jubilee. 

The disbelievers in real miracles are often entrap- 
ped into suppositions, which involve the belief of false 
or absurd ones. Suspecting that the sluggishness of 
the Jews may not sufficiently account for the Sabbatic 
institution, he gives the opinion of some antiquaries, 
that it was a ceremony in honour of Saturn. Now 
it happens, that the Greek and Roman denomin- 
ation of Saturn's day for the seventh was not of 
very ancient standing : so that the Jews must, in 
the days of Moses, or long before, have prophe- 
tically anticipated that particular division of the 
week, before it took place : for it is very unlikely 



ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 193 

that they should ever have heard of Saturn, either 
as a planet or as a god, till they adopted the ido- 
latries of the neighbouring nations. That the sun, 
moon, or stars exercise any influence over human 
affairs, was not a Jewish, but a heathen opinion. 
Neither Jews nor Christians were allowed to med- 
dle with astrology. Tacitus seems to have engaged 
deeply in it. He acknowledges the antiquity of 
Moses, and of his Jewish establishment. Many of 
the heathens were disinclined to own this. But he 
charges him with corrupt and impure institutions, 
without specifying them. He also accuses the Jews 
of nourishing a sullen hatred to the rest of man- 
kind; but Josephus proves, that though his pecu- 
liar people, they considered God as the universal 
father. Tacitus indeed often commends them where 
they are faulty, and falsifies their merits. Some 
of the learned consider circumcision as derived 
from the Egyptians ; but we know from the book 
of Genesis, that it was a token of the covenant. 
In one passage, Tacitus tells us, that they forget 
their parents, their brethren, and their children ; 
in another, that their fidelity and kindness to one 
another are unalterable. How are these contra- 
dictions to be reconciled, unless he mean that the 
interests of the nearest kindred were not to inter- 
fere with implicit obedience to the divine com- 
mand, as in the great instance of Abraham's sacri- 
fice? Entire resignation is indeed the leading 
principle both of Jewish and Christian piety. 

The custom of burying, instead of burning the 
dead, which Tacitus traces to the Egyptians, pre- 
vailed among the Hebrews, as early as the days of 
Abraham, long before the Israelites went into 
Egypt. 



194 ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 

Tacitus, however, makes ample concessions to 
the piety of the Jewish nation, in the worship of one 
God, of infinite power, seen only with the mind's 
eye, and in the absolute condemnation of all 
idolatry, and every attempt to give a representation 
of the Deity, wrought into the human form with 
perishable materials. On this ground, he says, they 
refused to introduce the statues of the Caesars 
into their temple. These important admissions 
were to be derived only from Josephus, and it is 
plain that Tacitus borrowed all that is valuable in 
his portrait of the Jews from him. Hence also he 
probably took the fact, that there was a vine 
wrought in gold in the front of their temple. 
From this, he says, some have inferred, that Bac- 
chus was the object of their adoration. He admits, 
however, that the Jewish forms of worship have no 
conformity with the rites of Bacchus. The vine is 
indeed mentioned by Josephus as a magnificent 
ornament : but no mention is made either by him, 
or in any part of the Bible, of what Tacitus asserts, 
that the Jewish priests were crowned with ivy. 

The chorography of Judea comes in naturally 
in Josephus, before Vespasian's first campaign. 
Tacitus seems to have formed his short abridgment 
from it. Both authors mention the richness and 
fertility of the soil : but Tacitus, not very con- 
sistently with that quality, says that rain is seldom 
seen. His account of Jordan, of its fountains 
derived from Mount Libanus, of the two lakes it 
runs through, and of its stoppage by the third, 
agrees in all points with Josephus. The last of 
these lakes he vaguely states to resemble a sea. 
Josephus gives its measurement; 580 furlongs 
long, 150 broad. Strabo says, that a man could 



ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 195 

not sink into the water of this lake, so deep as the 
navel. Joseph us does not say, that the slime, or 
bitumen, was cast out at a certain time of the 
year only ; and Strabo directly states the con- 
trary : Pliny agrees with Tacitus., Brotier quotes 
the authority of an eminent traveller in the East, 
affirming it to be thrown up on the surface of the 
waters during the autumn, probably from the places 
mentioned in the Bible. " All these were joined 
together in the vale of Siddim, which is the salt 

sea And the vale of Siddim was full of 

slime pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah 
fled, and fell there ; and they that remained fled 
to the mountains." — Genesis, chap. xiv. This con- 
cretion, after floating for some time, is driven by 
the wind to the shore, where it is carefully col- 
lected by the Arabs for their own use and profit, 
after delivering a certain proportion to the Bassa 
of Jerusalem. Tacitus and Josephus agree that 
the cities burnt by fire from heaven were not 
exactly in the place where the lake now is, but 
only in its neighbourhood. But when Tacitus 
says that the Jews were of all slaves the most 
despicable, he deserts his best authority, and 
slanders them. 

Both Josephus and Tacitus give a true account 
of the Jews, preliminary to the last war, the pri- 
mary occasion of which arose out of the concourse 
of Jewish supplicants, but without arms, who came 
to Petronius, the president of Syria, to state their 
determination not to place Caius Csesar's statue in 
the Temple. Tacitus is not quite accurate on this 
subject in his history; but in his annals, subse- 
quently composed, he corrects his statements by 
the authority of Josephus. He is mistaken, how- 

o 2 



196 ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 

ever, in what he says about Cumanus and Felix. 
Cestius Gallus succeeded Petronius. Josephus says 
nothing of his death. Tacitus mentions it, but in 
the failure of his principal authority, without par- 
ticulars. Josephus takes notice in general of the 
many omens, which predicted Vespasian's advance- 
ment to the empire, and distinctly adds a remark- 
able prophecy of his own to the same effect. 

" Initium ferendi ad Vespasianum Imperii Alex- 
andria cceptum, festinante Tiberio Alexandro, qui 
Kal. Jul. sacramento ejus legiones adegit. Isque 
primus Principatus dies in posterum celebratus, 
quamvis Judaicus exercitus v. Non. Jul. apud ipsum 
jurasset, eo ardore, ut ne Titus quidem filius expe- 
ctaretur, Syria remeans, ut consiliorum inter Mucia- 
num ac patrem nuntius." — Historiarum, lib. ii. cap. 
79. This agrees with the History of Josephus, that 
Vespasian was proclaimed Emperor in Judea, where 
he then was, before he was so proclaimed at Alex- 
andria. It requires, however, entirely to reconcile 
the Jewish and Roman historians, that the Nones, 
or perhaps the Ides of June should be substituted 
for the Nones of July in Tacitus and Suetonius. 
The interlacing of the months by their backward 
reckoning occasioned frequent confusion in dates. 

The miraculous cures imputed to Vespasian 
are strongly attested by both parties. The pre- 
diction of Josephus, already mentioned, assumes 
Vespasian and Titus to be raised to the Roman 
empire, and to command against Judea and Jeru- 
salem, not in the ordinary way of divine providence, 
but by especial interposition. The heathen oracle of 
Serapis confirmed the approbation of heaven. This 
was probably the first, and the only truth it ever 
told, further than as propitious auguries tend by 



ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 197 

encouragement to their own fulfilment. It is not 
probable that this was merely either a lucky hit, 
or even a wise conjecture on the part of the 
oracle. All history concurs in the discredit into 
which these impostures fell from the time of our 
Saviour. It seems to have been the will of Provi- 
dence, that these systematic retailers of falsehood 
and absurdity, these right-hand instruments of 
idolatrous theology, should once bear testimony to 
the truth before their final extinction. Their death 
was to point the moral, and adorn the tale of their 
vicious life. Josephus, also, standing as a bound- 
ary-stone between the heathen and the Christian, 
knowing the one true God, and a member of his 
first covenant, but not receiving, rather than reject- 
ing his second, was evidently chosen as an instru- 
ment of divine operation. He was the most fit 
instrument. 

According to an admitted maxim in philosophy, 
waste of power is defect of wisdom. The Deity 
never acts by strong means, when moderate will 
suffice ; by preternatural means, when natural ones 
will produce the required effect ; by remote means, 
when those which are competent are near at hand. 
Josephus met all occasions : he was almost the only 
Jew conversant with heathen learning, and there- 
fore calculated to ingratiate himself, as he did, 
with the Roman generals. He, therefore, was 
selected, not like the Jewish prophets, for the per- 
manent and exclusive service of God, but as the 
vehicle of occasional inspiration. We are not to 
look on his exercise of prophetic powers, as the 
mere ebullition of enthusiasm guessing right, or 
of personal arrogance, for his habitual modesty in 
speaking of himself is remarkable ; but as a link 

o 3 



198 ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPH US, ETC. 

in the chain of means, by which . our Saviour's 
touchstone prophecy of the almost immediate fall 
of Jerusalem was to be fulfilled. The object of 
that prophecy seems to have been principally, that 
his early converts might have some striking and 
notorious fact to appeal to, as a voucher for the 
truth of their belief. 

All the acting parties in this history, heathen as 
well as JewisTi, were the instruments of the Deity, 
independently of that influence which he exercises 
through the medium of his general providence. 
He might indeed have raised up any, the most 
obscure name among the Romans, to carry de- 
struction against the Jews, as a divine judgment 
for their sins. But strictly defined moderation is 
a part of infinite wisdom. Vespasian and Titus 
stood exactly in such a situation as Romans, that 
their advancement to the empire, for the purpose 
of executing this signal military vengeance, was 
best calculated to arrest attention and impress awe, 
without bearing the external stamp of miracle. 

We have already seen how difficult was the ac- 
complishment of this enterprise in the hands even 
of such accomplished generals. It might, in truth, 
have been effected by a babe or a suckling ; but 
the Deity does not make his wonders unnecessarily 
cheap among the heathen. 

We have also seen how exactly Tacitus and 
Joseph us agree in the personal character of Titus, 
and the description of his military array. 

" Igitur castris, ubi diximus, ante moenia Hiero- 
solymorum positis, instructas legiones ostentavit." 
— Lib. v. cap. 10. Titus's first camp was near the 
Mount of Olives. The substance of the parallel 
passage in Josephus has been already given. Both 



ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 199 

authors coincide as to the first bickerings and 
battles near the walls of Jerusalem, and as to the 
deliberations among the Romans, and their ultimate 
resolution, that it would not seem honourable to 
stay till the enemies were reduced by famine. 
They also give a concurrent description of the 
city, its two hills, its three walls, and four towers, 
as well as the pools for the preservation of rain- 
water. Josephus does not mention the cisterns, 
which Tacitus says they constructed in conse- 
quence of Pompey's siege. 

Tacitus mentions, that they obtained permission 
by bribery, in the reign of Claudius, to rebuild 
their walls. Josephus says nothing of this \ nor 
does he handle Claudius so severely, as do both 
Tacitus and Suetonius. Dio says, he was not 
covetous, though the other historians represent him 
as corrupt and venal. But Josephus might have 
been influenced to partiality by his kindness to the 
Jews. His learning, his quiet and unambitious 
temper, might have been a further recommendation. 
His deference to the counsels of so bad a minister 
as Pallas, and his mean subjection to his wife 
Agrippina, who at last poisoned him, have ren- 
dered him contemptible in the eyes of posterity. 

The portents and prodigies have been already 
mentioned : but the passage in Tacitus is suffi- 
ciently striking to merit transcription : — " Pluribus 
persuasio fuerat, antiquis Sacerdotum litteris conti- 
neri, eo ipso tempore fore, ut valesceret Oriens pro- 
fectique Judaea rerum potirentur. Quae ambages 
Vespasianum ac Titum praedixerant. Sed vulgus, 
more humanae cupidinis, sibi tantam fatorum ma- 
gnitudinem interpretati, ne adversis quidem ad vera 
mutabantur." — Lib. v. cap. 13. 

o 4 



200 ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC, 

Tacitus directly copies the testimony of Josephus 
concerning Christ and the Christians, given under 
the head of Titus. The fidelity, love of truth, and 
learning of Josephus are every where conspicuous; 
so that he may safely be trusted as an authority, 
not only on subjects immediately connected with 
the Jews, but on the affairs of foreigners. 

He is also a very entertaining historian, on 
subjects not immediately connected with the in- 
terests of religion. Of this the History of Herod 
will furnish an example. 

Cassius, on his flight from Rome, obtained 
possession of Syria, and checked the career of 
the Parthians, who had made incursions upon it 
after their victory over Crassus. As he came 
back to Tyre, he went up into Judea also, and fell 
upon Taricheae. He soon took it, and carried 
about thirty thousand Jews into captivity. He 
slew Pitholaus, who succeeded Aristobulus in his 
seditious practices, and that by the persuasion of 
Antipater who had great interest with him. An- 
tipater was also in great repute with the Idumeans. 
Out of that nation he married a woman of high 
birth among the Arabians, by name Cypras, not 
Cypris, the Greek name for Venus, as some critics 
propose to* read. By her he had four sons, 
Phasael, and Herod, afterwards king ; Joseph, and 
Pheroras ; and a daughter, named Salome. Hyr- 
canus the second received the appointment of high- 
priest from Cgesar. As he was of an inactive 
temper, Antipater, as procurator of Judea, made 
his eldest son Phasael governor of Jerusalem, and 
of the adjoining places, but committed Galilee to 
his next son Herod, when he was about twenty- 
five years of age, as he must have been, if Herod's 



ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 201 

age be rightly stated as seventy, at his death, forty- 
four years afterwards. His courage was soon 
signalised. Finding that one Hezekias, a captain 
of banditti, was over-running the neighbouring 
parts of Syria, he seized and slew him, with a great 
number of his band. This procured him the 
affection of the Syrians, who were anxious to be 
delivered from this scourge. They sang songs to 
his praise, in their villages and cities, for having 
procured them peace and security in their posses- 
sions. Thus he became known to Sextus Caesar, 
a relation of Julius, and was made president of 
Syria. His brother Phasael grew jealous of all 
this, and determined to rival Herod's popularity 
in his own government of Jerusalem. But his 
emulation took an honourable turn ; for he ingra- 
tiated himself with the inhabitants, and managed 
their business judiciously, without abusing his au- 
thority. In the mean time, it became known that 
Antipater had sent money, which he had prevailed 
on Hyrcanus to furnish, as a present to his imperial 
friends at Rome from himself. The chief men 
among the Jews were angry at this, and began to 
be afraid of Herod's boldness and violence, and its 
termination in actual tyranny. They went to 
Hyrcanus, and accused Antipater publicly, re- 
proaching the high-priest for his indifference. They 
pointed out that Antipater and his sons had already 
usurped the government, and left nothing but the 
name of king to Hyrcanus. They cautioned him 
against wilful blindness, or a time-serving hope of 
avoiding danger by affected carelessness. Antipater 
and his offspring, who had been his stewards, were 
become his masters. Herod had slain Hezekias 
and his party, and thereby had trangressed the 



c 20% ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 

law, which forbids the destruction of any man, 
however wicked, but in consequence of legal con- 
demnation by the Sanhedrim. Yet he had done 
this without the authority of Hyrcanus, This 
latter charge refers to a provision in the law of 
Moses, that even in criminal causes, and espe- 
cially where life was concerned, an appeal should 
lie from the lesser councils of seven in the other 
cities, to the supreme council of seventy-one at 
Jerusalem. In reference to this our Saviour says, 
" Nevertheless, I must walk to-day, and to-morrow, 
and the day following : for it cannot be that a pro- 
phet perish out of Jerusalem." — Luke, chap. xiii. 

The mothers of those slain by Herod raised the 
indignation of Hyrcanus, by thronging the tem- 
ple every day, and urging the king and people 
to put Herod on his trial before the Sanhedrim. 
Hyrcanus consented, and Herod obeyed the sum- 
mons. His father persuaded him to come with a 
body-guard, and not as a private person. He ad- 
vised him to arrange the affairs of Galilee to his 
own advantage, and then to set out with a body of 
men sufficient for his own security against his 
enemies, but not so numerous as to alarm Hyr- 
canus. Sextus Caesar, president of Syria, wrote 
to Hyrcanus, desiring him, with threats in case 
of non-compliance, to procure Herod's acquittal. 
Hyrcanus, who loved Sextus sincerely, determined 
to comply with his demand. When Herod stood 
with his guards before the Sanhedrim, the whole 
assembly was terrified into silence, and his ac- 
cusers shrunk from their charge. A righteous 
man, above all fear, whose name was Sameas, or 
Simeon, the son of Shetach, stood up and made the 
following speech : — " O you, that are assessors 



ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 203 

with me, and O thou that art our king, never pro- 
bably have ye known a parallel case ; that one who 
is to take his trial from us ever stood so before 
us. Every one, be he who he may, that comes to 
be tried by this Sanhedrim, presents himself in a 
submissive manner, and like one that is in fear of 
himself. He endeavours to excite compassion, by 
appearing in a mourning garment, with his hair 
dishevelled. This Herod, who is called to answer 
the charge of murder, stands here clothed in purple, 
with his hair finely trimmed, with his armed men 
about him, that if he be condemned by our law, he 
may slay us, and by bearing down justice, escape 
death. Yet I make not this complaint against 
Herod himself, who is more dear to himself than 
are the laws. But my complaint is against you 
and your king, who give him this licence so to do. 
Yet take you notice, that God is great, and that 
this very man, whom you are going to acquit for 
the sake of Hyrcanus, will one day punish both him 
and yourselves." 

Nor was Sameas mistaken in his prediction. On 
the accession of Herod to the kingdom, he slew 
Hyrcanus and all the members of this Sanhedrim, 
with the exception of Sameas himself whom he 
held in high honour for his fearless integrity. 
Sameas had also purchased his forbearance, by per- 
suading the people to admit Herod into the city, 
when he and Sosius besieged it. The motive of 
Sameas was to prevent the effusion of blood, as he 
was persuaded, that for their sins, they would not 
be able to save themselves out of his hands. 

When Hyrcanus saw the effect of this harangue, 
and that the members of the Sanhedrim were suf- 



204 ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 

ficiently spirited up to pronounce sentence of death, 
he put off the trial to another day, and privately 
advised Herod to escape out of the city. 

Sextus sold the post of general of the Ccelesyrian 
army to Herod. Hyrcanus was in fear lest Herod 
should make war upon him, which he soon did, in 
resentment of the trial he had been summoned to 
undergo before the Sanhedrim. But his father 
Antipater, and his brother Phasael, dissuaded him 
from assaulting Jerusalem. He the sooner yielded 
to their arguments, as he thought it sufficient for 
his future hopes to have merely displayed his 
strength before the nation. 

He got into favour with Cassius and the Romans, 
by strictly exacting the required taxes from Galilee. 
He felt it prudent to cultivate their friendship at 
the expence of his countrymen, who were, how- 
ever, saved by this apparent harshness. The 
curators of the other cities, with their citizens, were 
sold for slaves. Cassius reduced four cities to a 
state of slavery : the two most powerful were 
Gophna and Emmaus; the other two, Lydda and 
Thamna. 

On the war between Cassius and Brutus on the 
one side, and Augustus Caesar and Antony on the 
other, Cassius and Marcus got together an army 
out of Syria. As Herod was likely to be of much 
service in providing necessaries, they made him 
governor of all Syria, with an army of foot and 
horse. Antipater had recently saved Malichus, 
who afterwards murdered him. The power and 
hopes of Herod, whom the Roman generals had 
promised to make king of Judea, made Antipater 
the sacrifice to the wickedness of Malichus. This 



ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 205 

man, alarmed at the increasing influence of the 
family, corrupted the butler of Hyrcanus to admi- 
nister poison. 

When Antipater's sons, Herod and Phasael, 
were acquainted with this conspiracy, they were 
violently incensed. Malichus disclaimed any know- 
ledge of the murder. Herod resolved immediately 
to revenge his father's death, and was coming on 
Malichus with an army for that purpose. Phasael, 
the elder of Antipater's sons, thought it better to 
get this man into their hands by policy, and thus 
avoid the appearance of beginning a civil war in the 
country. On his own part, therefore, he accepted 
the denial, and affected to believe that Malichus 
had no hand in his father's death. He erected a 
splendid monument to Antipater. Herod went to 
Samaria, and finding them in great distress, he 
revived their spirits, and composed their differ- 
ences. 

At the feast of Pentecost, he returned to Jeru- 
salem, after sending his armed men before him. 
Hyrcanus, at the request of the terrified Malichus, 
forbade foreigners to mix themselves with the 
people of the country, during the purification. 
Herod despised that subterfuge, and came in by 
night. Malichus came to him, and bewailed An- 
tipater. Herod pretended to believe his lament- 
ation real, though he had much difficulty to 
suppress his angry feelings. He wrote a melan- 
choly letter to Cassius, who hated Malichus for 
other reasons. Cassius returned an answer, giving 
him authority to avenge his father's death, and 
sent private directions to the tribunes under him, 
to assist Herod in a righteous action he was under- 
taking. He put Malichus to death. 



206 ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 

Herod ejected Antigonus out of Judea, and 
took from Marion what he had gained in Galilee. 
He dismissed the Tyrian garrison with civility, 
and made presents to some of the soldiers ; but he 
bore no good will to the city. On his arrival at 
Jerusalem, Hyrcanus and the people put garlands 
about his head. He had already contracted an 
alliance with the family of Hyrcanus, by having 
espoused a descendant of his ; and for that reason 
Herod took the greater care of him, as being 
to marry the daughter of Alexander, the son of 
Aristobulus, and the grand-daughter of Hyrcanus, 
by which wife he became the father of three male, 
and two female children. At this time, some prin- 
cipal men among the Jews, went into Bithynia, to 
accuse Phasael and Herod. They said that Hyrcanus 
was nominally king, but that these men had all the 
power. Antony paid great respect to Herod, who 
came to defend himself against his accusers. So 
entirely had Herod gained Antony's favour by 
bribery, that his opponents could not obtain a 
hearing. And here it is to be noticed, that when- 
ever any party among the Jews gained the Romans 
to its side, or whenever any decree was obtained 
in their favour as a nation, all-powerful money 
purchased the restoration of the right, the grant of 
the privilege, or inclined the balance of partisan- 
ship. Josephus furnishes many examples of this 
in various parts of his history. All in authority, 
whether Romans or others, considered the Jews as 
peculiarly marked out for pillage : — " And the 
chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained 
I this freedom." — Acts, chap. xxii. St. Paul's 
ancestors probably purchased the like freedom for 
their family by money. 



ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 207 

Herod and his partisans were again accused by 
the most powerful of the Jews, to the number of a 
hundred. The most eloquent among them were 
commissioned to speak. But Messala contradicted 
them, on behalf of the young men, in presence of 
Hyrcanus, of whom Josephus speaks as Herod's 
father-in-law. In respect to this term, it is to be 
observed, that espousals alone were anciently 
esteemed a sufficient ground of affinity. Hyrcanus 
is called father-in-law to Herod, because his grand- 
daughter Mariamne was betrothed to him, though 
the marriage was not completed till four years 
afterwards. Antony was then at Daphne, and 
heard both sides. He asked Hyrcanus, who go- 
verned the nation best ? He replied, Herod and 
his friends. Hereupon Antony, on account of his 
reciprocal hospitality on the classical footing with 
Antipater, when he was with Gabinius, made 
Herod and Phasael tetrarchs, committed the public 
concerns of the Jews to their care, and wrote 
letters of confirmation. He bound fifteen of their 
opponents, and was going to kill them ; but Herod 
interceded for their pardon. It has been before 
observed, that Antony was corrupted by the money 
which Herod and his brother had given him. He 
therefore gave orders to the governor of the place 
to punish the Jewish ambassadors who were given 
to innovation, and to settle the government upon 
Herod, who went out to them in haste, with Hyrca- 
nus, for they were standing on the shore before the 
city. He charged them to depart, denouncing much 
mischief if they proceeded with their accusation. 
But his warning was vain. Consequently, the 
Romans ran upon them with their daggers, slaying 
some, and wounding more : the rest ran home and 



£08 ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC* 

hid themselves, in great consternation. When the 
people made a clamour against Herod, Antony 
was so enraged at it that he slew the prisoners. 

Herod had much difficulty in escaping the 
snares of the. Parthians. The butler, who in those 
days seems to have been synonymous with the 
murderer, was sent against Herod. He had it in 
command to get him beyond the walls of the city, 
and to seize upon him. But messengers had been 
sent by Phasael to inform Herod of the Parthian 
treachery. When he knew that the enemy had 
seized on him and Hyrcanus, he went to Pacorus, 
and to the most powerful of the Parthians, as to 
the lords of the rest. They dissembled their know- 
ledge of the affair, and asked him to go out with 
them before the walls, and meet those who were 
bringing him his letters ; for they were not taken 
by his adversaries, but were coming to give him an 
account of the good success Phasael had met with. 
Herod did not credit what they said, for he had 
heard that his brother was seized upon by others 
also. The grand-daughter of Hyrcanus, whom he 
had espoused, also warned him not to credit them. 
This made him still more suspicious of the Par- 
thians ; for though other people esteemed her but 
lightly, he held her to be a woman of great wisdom. 
Now as Pacorus and his friends were considering 
how they might bring their plot to bear privately, 
because it was not possible to succeed against a 
man of so great prudence by an open attack, 
Herod was much disturbed in mind, and more 
disposed to believe the reports he heard about 
his brother and the Parthians, than to give 
heed to what was said on the other side. He 
therefore determined, that as night came on, he 



ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 209 

would make use of it for his flight, taking with 
him the persons most nearly related to him, with- 
out their enemies being apprised of it, and not 
make any longer delay, as if the danger were still 
uncertain. His mind was superior to the fear 
natural to so hazardous a condition, and his cou- 
rage increased with his difficulties. As he passed 
along he cheered his companions, and entreated 
them not to abandon themselves to sorrow, as it 
would destroy the only hope they had in flight. 
Malchus, king of Arabia, refused to receive him, 
but soon repented, and came after him, but 
without success. Herod had advanced into the 
road to Pelusium ; and when the stationary ships 
there hindered him from sailing to Alexandria, he 
went to their captains, who had great reverence 
and regard for him. By their assistance he was 
conducted into the city of Alexandria, and re- 
tained there by Cleopatra. Yet she was not able 
to prevail with him to stop, because he was 
hurrying to Rome, notwithstanding the stormy 
weather; for he was informed that the state of 
Italy was very tumultuous, and its affairs in great 
disorder. Cleopatra had hoped he might be per- 
suaded to be commander of her forces, in the 
expedition she was planning, but he rejected her 
solicitations. He landed at Brundusium, or Bren- 
tesium, or B^ybV/w as it stands on some coins. 

Antony felt compassion for the reverses of He- 
rod's fortunes. Reflecting that this was the com- 
mon fate of those who are placed in high stations, 
and that they are liable to sudden changes, he was 
ready to give him the assistance he desired. He 
called to mind how hospitably he had been treated 
by Antipater, and Herod's extraordinary virtue in 



210 ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 

having formerly bribed him for the office of te- 
trarch, and now repeating the application to be 
made king of the Jews. The contest he was now 
engaged in with Antigonus, and his hatred to him 
as a seditious person, and an enemy to the Romans, 
were of no less weight than his regard for Herod. 
Caesar was still better inclined to forward Herod's 
advancement, and to assist him in his designs, as 
remembering the toils of war he had shared with 
his father Antipater in Egypt, the hospitable treat- 
ment and peculiar kindness he had received from 
him, and the activity he saw in Herod himself. 
He wished also to gratify Antony's zeal for Herod. 
He therefore called the senate together. Messala 
first, and afterwards Atratinus, produced Herod 
before them, enlarged on the benefits they had 
received from his father, and reminded them of 
the son's good will to the Romans. The senate 
was moved by these reasons, and irritated at the 
Parthian treachery. Antony then came in, and 
proved to them how much it was for their advan- 
tage in the Parthian war, that Herod should be 
king. They all voted for it accordingly. When 
the senate adjourned, Antony and Caesar went out, 
with Herod between them. The consul and the 
other magistrates went before them to offer sacri- 
fice, and to deposit the decree in the Capitol. An- 
tony made a feast for Herod on the first day of 
his reign. 

The chronology of Herod, both as to the time 
when he was first made king at Rome, and the 
time when he began his second reign without a 
competitor, on the conquest and slaughter of An- 
tigonus, is principally derived from the last three 



ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 211 

chapters of the fourteenth book of Josephus's An- 
tiquities of the Jews. 

Herod, on quitting Italy, sailed to Ptolemais, 
where he assembled a considerable army, both of 
strangers and of his own countrymen, and marched 
through Galilee against Antigonus. Silo and Ven- 
tidius came to his assistance on the persuasion of 
Dellius, who was sent by Antony to assist in bring- 
ing Herod back. Herod's army increased every 
day as he advanced, and Galilee, with a few ex- 
ceptions, joined him. His first object was to save 
those who were besieged in the fortress of Massada, 
because they were his relations. But it was neces- 
sary to remove the obstacle of Joppa, a city at 
variance with him, that no strong hold might be 
left in the enemy's possession when he should go 
to Jerusalem. When Silo made this a pretence 
for rising up from Jerusalem, and was thereupon 
pursued by the Jews, Herod fell upon them with a 
small body of men, put the Jews to flight, and 
saved Silo when he was very little able to defend 
himself. After this Herod took Joppa, and then 
made haste to rescue those of his family who were 
in Massada. Herod had now a strong army. As 
he marched on, Antigonus prepared ambuscades 
in the passes and other places best adapted for 
them ; but they did little mischief to those against 
whom they were planned. Thus Herod delivered 
his family out of Massada, and the fortress Bessa, 
and then went on for Jerusalem. The soldiery 
with Silo, and many of the citizens who were afraid 
of his power, accompanied him. As soon as he 
had pitched his camp on the west side of the city, 
the soldiers on guard there shot their arrows, and 
threw their darts at him. Great numbers made a 

p 2 



212 ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 

sally, and fought with the first ranks of Herod's 
army hand to hand. He ordered proclamation to 
be made about the wall, That he came for the good 
of the people, and for the preservation of the city ; 
not to revenge himself on even his most inveterate 
enemies, but with the desire to forget their most 
grievous offences. Antigonus, in reply to Herod's 
proclamation, said before the Romans and before 
Silo, That they would not do justly if they gave 
the kingdom to Herod, who was no more than a 
private man, and an Idumean, or half Jew. This 
assertion of Antigonus, made in the days of Herod* 
and almost to his face, carries much greater autho- 
rity than the pretences of his favourite and flat- 
terer, Nicolaus of Damascus, that he derived his 
pedigree from Jews as far backward as the Baby-* 
lonish captivity. Josephus always esteems him an 
Idumean, though he affirms his father Antipater to 
be of the same people with the Jews, and a Jew 
by birth. But the Idumeans were in time consi- 
dered as identified with the Jews. 

Herod was not fond of lying still. He sent out 
his brother Joseph against Idumea with two thou- 
sand armed footmen, and four hundred horsemen, 
while he himself went to Samaria, and left his mo- 
ther and his other relations there ; for they had 
already departed from Massada. He then went 
into Galilee to take certain places held by the gar- 
risons of Antigonus, and passed into Sepphoris ; as 
God sent a snow, while the garrisons of Antigonus 
withdrew themselves, and had great plenty of pro- 
visions. He had now brought over to him all Ga- 
lilee, excepting the inhabitants of the caves, and 
distributed money to all his soldiers, to the amount 
of a hundred and fifty drachmae apiece, with much 



ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 218 

larger sums to their captains, and sent them into 
winter quarters. At this time Silo came to him 
again, and his commanders with him, because An- 
tigonus would no longer pay his treachery, having 
supplied his people with provisions for no more 
than one month. More than that, he had sent to 
all the country round, and ordered them to carry 
off their provisions, and retire to the mountains, 
that the Romans might perish by famine. But 
Herod committed the care of the supplies to his 
younger brother Pheroras, and commanded him to 
repair Alexandrium. 

Antony was now staying some time at Athens, 
and Ventidius, who was in Syria, sent for Silo, and 
commanded him first to assist Herod in finishing 
the present war, and then to send for their confe- 
derates for the war they were themselves engaged 
in. Herod went in haste against the robbers in 
the caves, and sent Silo to Ventidius while he 
marched against them. One old man was caught 
within one of these caves, with a wife and seven 
children, who were earnest to go out, and surrender 
to the enemy : but he stood at the mouth of the 
cave, and slew every child who attempted a passage, 
till he had destroyed them all. He then killed his- 
wife, and threw the dead bodies down the preci- 
pice, and himself after them, preferring death to 
slavery. Before this final act of despair, he re- 
proached Herod scornfully with the meanness of 
his family, notwithstanding his adventitious royalty. 
Herod wishing to prevent the execution of his rash 
design, stretched out his hand, and offered him 
assurances that his life should be safe. All the 
caves were at length entirely reduced. 

Herod joined his troops with those of Antony 
p 3 



214 ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 

at the siege of Samosata, and was received with 
great honour. His post was in the rear. On one 
occasion, when the first ranks had passed, an am- 
buscade, to the number of about five hundred, fell 
suddenly on them, and put the foremost to flight. 
The king, with the forces about him, came riding 
hard and immediately drove back the enemy. 
Thus he so emboldened his own men to go on, that 
those who ran away before returned, and the bar- 
barians were slain on all sides. The king followed 
up the carnage, and recovered all the baggage, 
with many beasts of burden and slaves. He then 
proceeded on his march. Many of those who had 
attacked them had got into the woods, near the 
passage that led into the plain. On these he made 
a sally with a strong body of men, put them to 
flight, slew several, and rendered the way safe for 
those that were to come after, who considered him 
as their saviour and protector. 

On his arrival at Daphne, near Antioch, mes- 
sengers came to inform him that his brother Joseph 
was slain in Judea. This was not unexpected ; as 
his dreams, or as he conceived, visions, had clearly 
foreshown his brother's death. In the course of 
his subsequent campaign, on one occasion his sol- 
diers got on the tops of houses which were full of 
enemies, pulled up the upper floors, and destroyed 
the people beneath. This must have been effected 
by ladders from the outside. It appears from se- 
veral texts in the New Testament, that this was 
no uncommon mode of ascending on ordinary 
occasions. 

The generals at the siege of Jerusalem were two : 
Sosius, sent by Antony to assist Herod, and Herod 
on his own account, to take the government from 



ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 215 

Antigonus, who had been declared an enemy at 
Rome, that he might himself be king, according to 
the decree of the senate. Josephus fully and fre- 
quently assures us, that above three years passed 
between Herod's first obtaining the kingdom at 
Rome, and a second time on the taking of Jeru- 
salem and the death of Antigonus. The history of 
the interval twice mentions the army as going into 
winter quarters. This may be supposed to belong 
to two several winters, though he says nothing of 
the time they lay in those quarters. But he de- 
scribes the long and studied delays of Ventidius, 
Silo, and Macheras, who were sent to see Herod 
settled in his new kingdom, but seem not to have 
had sufficient forces for the purpose: besides which, 
it is clear that they were all corrupted by Anti- 
gonus. He also gives us such particular accounts 
of Herod's many exploits during the same interval, 
as fairly imply that interval, before Herod went to 
Samosata, to have been very considerable. We 
know from other sources, that Tigranes, then king 
of Armenia, and the principal manager of this Par- 
thian war, reigned two years after Herod was made 
king at Rome. Antony did not hear of his death, 
in that very neighbourhood, at Samosata, till he 
was come thither to besiege it. After this Herod 
marched an army three hundred and forty miles, 
through a difficult country, full of enemies, and 
joined with him in the siege of Samosata till its 
capture. Herod and Sosius then marched back 
with their large armies the same number of miles. 
When, a little time afterwards, they sat down be- 
fore Jerusalem, they could not take it by a siege 
of less than five months. All this put together, 
satisfactorily supplies what is wanting in Josephus, 

p 4 



210 ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 

and establishes the chronology of those times be- 
yond the reach of contradiction. 

With respect to Herod's marriage with the 
celebrated Mariamne, the daughter of Alexandra, 
the first engagement took place, after he had been 
fighting against Antigonus and his party in the 
avenues of Judea. He was conqueror in a pitched 
battle, and drove Antigonus away. He then re- 
turned to Jerusalem, beloved by every body, for 
this glorious action. Those who before had not 
been favourable to him, united themselves with 
him now, on account of his marriage into the 
family of Hyrcanus. He had formerly married a 
woman of his own country, by name Doris, of 
no ignoble blood, by whom he had Antipater. He 
now married Mariamne, the daughter of Alexan- 
der, the son of Aristobulus, and the grand-daughter 
of Hyrcanus. By this marriage he became related 
to the king. But the marriage was not finally 
solemnised till a short time after the death of his 
brother Joseph, who was slain by Pappus, the 
general for Antigonus. This Pappus was killed 
in battle. Herod had his head cut off, and sent 
it in savage triumph to his brother Pheroras. This 
was in the third year after he had been made king 
at Rome. At the close of the winter he marched 
to Jerusalem, and brought his army under its 
walls. He pitched his camp before the Temple, 
as the only practicable side for besieging it. It 
was there that Pompey took the city. 

When the war about Actium was begun, Herod 
prepared to come to Antony's assistance. He was 
already delivered from his troubles in Judea, and 
had gained Hyrcania, held by the sister of Anti- 
gonus. But the cunning of Cleopatra hindered 



ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 217 

him from sharing in Antony's hazards. She had 
laid a plot against the kings of Judea and Arabia. 
She therefore prevailed with Antony to commit 
the war against the Arabians to Herod. If he 
were victorious, she might become mistress of 
Arabia: if he were defeated, Judea might be 
hers. Thus she hoped to play these kings off 
against each other, and to destroy one of them. 
But this contrivance tended to Herod's advantage. 
At the very first he took hostages from the enemy, 
and got together a great body of horse. He 
ordered them to march against the forces in the 
neighbourhood of Diospolis, and conquered that 
army, although it fought resolutely against him. 
When Herod came to Kanatha, he endeavoured 
to manage this war with particular prudence. He 
gave orders for a wall to be built about their 
camp. The multitude did not comply with his 
directions. They were so emboldened by their 
recent victory, that they immediately attacked the 
Arabians, and defeated them at the first onset. 
They then pursued them ; but snares were laid for 
Herod in that pursuit. Athenio, one of Cleo- 
patra's generals, and always Herod's opponent, 
sent the men of that country out of Kanatha 
against him. On this fresh onset, the Arabians 
regained their courage, and returned. The two 
parties joined their numerous forces about stony 
places, that rendered the passage difficult, and 
there put Herod's men to the rout. The slaugh- 
ter was great ; but those who escaped out of the 
battle fled to Ormiza, where the Arabians sur- 
rounded their camp, and took it with all the men 
it contained. This great defeat of his army, and 
his own consequent distress, with a great earth- 



^18 ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 

quake in Judea, seem to have produced the same 
effect on Herod, as times of affliction bring about 
with most men : that of making them at least tem- 
porarily religious. There is no other instance men- 
tioned in Josephus, but this under peculiar discou- 
ragement, largely as he speaks of Herod and in 
minute detail, of his ever thinking to supplicate the 
Deity with sacrifices. But before he went out to 
his next battle with the Arabians, he offered the 
sacrifices appointed by the law. He then without 
delay led the Jews against the Arabians, passing 
over Jordan, and pitching his camp near that of 
the enemy. Nor was he disappointed in his hopes 
on this occasion. The Jews felt highly encou- 
raged. Herod then observing that the hostile 
army was utterly disinclined to an engagement, 
ventured boldly to attempt their bulwark, and to 
pull it to pieces, that he might get nearer to their 
camp and fight them. Being thus forced from 
their trenches, they went out in disorder, without 
alacrity or the hope of victory. Yet being more 
in number than the Jews, they fought hand-to- 
hand. Indeed their military position was such, 
that they were obliged to put a good face on the 
necessity of fighting. The battle was terrible, and 
not a few fell on both sides. It ended in a signal 
victory over the Arabians, who had so lately been 
the conquerors. The earthquake in Judea, also, 
had so raised their insolence, that they presumed 
to put the Jewish ambassadors to death. Now 
all was consternation, and they with difficulty 
screwed up their courage to the sticking-place. 

Herod's mind was soon after this disturbed by 
the state of affairs at Rome, and jealousy of Hyr- 
canus. An occasion of venting his malignity soon 



ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 219 

occurred. Hyrcanus was at all times mild in Jiis 
temper. He had no desire to meddle with public 
affairs, nor to concern himself with innovations. 
He was contented with whatever fortune afforded 
him. But his daughter Alexandra was a lover of 
strife, and very desirous of a change in the govern- 
ment. She therefore urged her father not to bear 
for ever Herod's injurious treatment of their family, 
but to anticipate their future hopes, as he safely 
might. She desired him to write to Malchus, then 
governor of Arabia, to receive and secure them 
from Herod. If they were to go away, and Herod's 
interests to fail in consequence of Caesar's enmity, 
they would then be the only persons capable of 
assuming the government, on account of their 
royal birth and popularity with the multitude. 
Hyrcanus resisted her suit : but she was a woman, 
and a contentious woman too. She pursued her 
object day and night ; and by dwelling on Herod's 
treacherous designs, prevailed with him to intrust 
his friend Dositheus with a letter, declaring his 
resolution. He desired the Arabian governor to 
send some horsemen, for the purpose of conducting 
him to the lake Asphaltites, 300 furlongs distant 
from the boundaries of Jerusalem. He consigned 
this letter to Dositheus, as an assiduous attendant 
on himself and Alexandra, and because he had 
many motives for hostility to Herod, for having 
slain his kinsman Joseph. He was also brother to 
some persons formerly slain at Tyre by Antony. 
But his resentment on these accounts was not 
strong enough to secure his fidelity to Hyrcanus. 
He preferred an interest with the present king to 
remote prospects with a presumptive one, and 
gave Herod the letter, who immediately sent for 



S20 ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 

Hyrcanus, and questioned him about his league 
with Malchus. On his denying it, he showed the 
letter to the sanhedrim, and put him to death in- 
stantly. Josephus gives this account from Herod's 
own Commentaries ; but states that other histo- 
rians tell a different tale. They suppose that 
Herod did not find, but make this occasion, by 
laying an insidious snare. According to them, 
Herod and Hyrcanus were once at an entertain- 
ment, when Herod put the question to the latter, 
without appearing to be displeased, whether he 
had received any letters from Malchus ? The 
answer was, that he had received letters, but only 
of common-place civility. The question was again 
put, whether he had not received presents ? On 
his reply, that he had only received four riding- 
horses from Malchus, Herod charged this upon 
him as corruption and treason, and gave immediate 
orders for his execution. The historians urge the 
mildness of his temper as an argument of his inno- 
cence. In his youth he had exhibited neither 
temerity nor boldness. When he came to be king, 
he committed the management of public business 
to Antipater. He was now above fourscore years 
old, and knew Herod's government to be stable. 
Besides this, he came over the Euphrates, leaving 
his faithful adherents on the other side of that 
river, and putting himself entirely in Herod's power. 
They consider it as incredible that he should so 
depart from his usual character, or form any enter- 
prise for the purpose of innovation. The in- 
ference is, that this was a plot of Herod's own 
contrivance. 

As soon as Hyrcanus was out of the way, Herod 
hastened to Caesar. He could not entertain hopes 



ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 2%l 

of kindness from him, on account of his friendship 
with Antony. He suspected Alexandra of taking 
this opportunity to produce a revolt among the 
multitude, and foster sedition. He therefore com- 
mitted the affairs of the kingdom to his brother 
Pheroras, and placed his mother Cypras and his 
sister Salome, and the whole family at Massada, 
giving him charge to take care of the government, 
if he should hear any bad tidings of himself. Mu- 
tual misunderstanding prevented his wife Mariamne 
from living with his sister and his mother. He 
therefore placed her at Alexandrium with her own 
mother Alexandra, and left his treasurer Joseph, 
and Sohemus of Iturea, to take care of that fortress. 
Herod was confirmed in his kingdom by Caesar, 
partly in consequence of Quintus Didius having 
written word, that he was willing to assist in an 
affair of gladiators. 

Herod had five children by Mariamne; two 
daughters and three sons. The youngest of the 
sons was educated at Rome, and died there. He 
treated the two eldest as of royal blood, on account 
of their mother's noble rank, and their birth after 
he was king. His love for Mariamne was very 
strong, and increased from day to day. He con- 
sidered all his other anxieties as compensated by 
the possession of hen But she returned his affec- 
tion with consummate hatred. In this part of the 
story, Josephus is inconsistent. In one place he 
represents her as reproaching Herod with the 
murder of her father Alexander, as well as her bro- 
ther Aristobulus : in another, he gives the received 
story, that he caused her grandfather Hyrcanus 
to be slain, not her father Alexander. If we may 
be allowed to read grandfather for father, the name 



222 ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 

neither of Alexander nor Hyrcanus being men- 
tioned, Josephus's accuracy and consistency will 
be vindicated. 

The dominions of Herod were now enlarged, 
and he became more magnificent. He conducted 
Caesar as far as Antioch after their interview. 
In proportion as his prosperity was augmented 
by foreign acquisitions, his family distresses in- 
creased on his return. They arose chiefly from 
his wife, in whom he had hitherto considered 
himself as most fortunate ; nor could any hus- 
band exceed him in affection. But she upbraided 
his mother and sister openly with the meanness 
of their birth, and spoke of them with unkind- 
ness. These bickerings between the women were 
of long standing; but their hatred at length broke 
out into mutual reproaches in public, not unac- 
companied with suspicious hints. This lasted 
a whole year after Herod's return from Caesar, 
though for some time decency had been in a great 
degree preserved. The storm burst all at once. 
The king was one day resting on his bed at noon, 
when his fondness induced him to call for Mari- 
amne. The ebullitions of her wayward temper 
offended him, and he was on the point of using 
violence to her. His sister Salome, noticing that 
he was more than ordinarily disturbed, sent the 
king's cup-bearer in to him precipitately, according 
to a design long in preparation. She bid him tell 
the king, how Mariamne had persuaded him to 
assist her in preparing a love-potion for him. He 
went in and told his story with a sufficient degree 
of composure to gain credit, yet with an affectation 
of hurry. Finding the king moved, he said that 
the love-potion she had mixed was a composition, 
whose effects he was not acquainted with : he 



ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 223 

determined therefore to give this information, as 
the safest course he could adopt both for himself 
and for the king. Herod was in ill-humour, and 
his anger grew more violent. He ordered Ma- 
riamne's most faithful eunuch to be put to the 
torture about this potion, because it was not pos- 
sible for any thing to be done without his know- 
ledge. The most acute agonies could extort 
nothing from the man on the subject in question : 
but he said, that Mariamne hated Herod in conse- 
quence of some suggestion on the part of Sohemus. 
Herod cried aloud, that Sohemus, having been at 
all other times faithful to him and to his govern- 
ment, would not have betrayed his secrets but in 
more intimate conversation than ordinary with 
Mariamne. He gave orders that Sohemus should 
be seized, and slain immediately. He allowed his 
wife to take her trial : but got together his most 
attached people, and laid an elaborate information 
against her for this love-potion and suspicious 
composition, the charge concerning which was 
a mere calumny. The court, seeing the bent of 
his mind, passed sentence of death ; but he and 
some others suggested that she should only be 
imprisoned in one of the fortresses. Salome and 
her party laboured hard for immediate execution, 
using prudential arguments to the king, lest the 
multitude should be tumultuous if she were suf- 
fered to live. The sentence therefore was carried 
into effect. Alexandra, on seeing this, felt how 
little hope there was that she herself should escape 
the like treatment from Herod. She therefore 
recovered her former boldness. To show her ig- 
norance of the crimes charged against Mariamne, 
she indecently reproached her daughter in the 



224 ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 

hearing of all the people. She accused her of 
being a bad woman, ungrateful to her husband, 
and justly punished for her insolent behaviour, 
and unsuitable returns to their common benefactor. 
She acted this hypocritical part for some time, and 
carried her outrage so far as to tear her hair. 
This occurred at the scaffold. Both the spectators 
and the victim were shocked at such dissimulation. 
The daughter looked at her, but uttered not a 
word, and seemed to feel nothing on her own 
account. But the nobleness of her mind disco- 
vered itself in her manifest concern for her mother's 
self-exposure. She then proceeded to her death 
with unshaken firmness of mind, and without 
changing colour. Her last moments were worthy 
of her descent. In her life she had been distin- 
guished for chastity and magnanimity. Her fault 
was want of moderation, and a contentious temper. 
Her beauty was great, and her appearance majes- 
tic. The stern dignity of her character prevented 
her from proving so agreeable to the king, or 
living so pleasantly with him, as she might have 
done. His indulgence and fondness were un- 
bounded ; and this sometimes led her to try him 
beyond bearing, and produced unexpected harsh- 
ness on his part. 

After this time Herod revolted from the laws of 
his country, and corrupted their ancient consti- 
tution, by the introduction of foreign customs. 
That constitution ought to have been inviolate. 
When the religious observances which were wont 
to inspire the multitude with piety were neglected, 
wickedness generally prevailed. He appointed 
solemn games to be celebrated every fifth year in 
honour of Csesar, built a theatre at Jerusalem, and 



ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. %%5 

a large amphitheatre in the plain. In the theatre 
he instituted magnificent plays and shows, thyme- 
Uci, which were music meetings, and chariot races, 
where the chariots were drawn by two, three, or 
four pair of horses. The sober Jews looked on 
these as heathenish sports, tending to corrupt the 
morals of their nation, to bring them into contact 
with Pagan idolatry and manners. They con- 
demned them as tending to the immediate dissolu- 
tion of the Mosaic law. Our modern masquerades, 
plays, operas, with other pomps and vanities of 
the world, are as mercilessly, but with less reason, 
censured by a certain class of Christian enthu- 
siasts. The Jews were to be separated from the 
world ; we constitute it. 

A mob took this matter up offensively: but 
Herod got clear of the multitude, and allayed the 
violence of their passion. The greatest part of the 
people were disposed to change their conduct, and 
not to be displeased with him any longer. Still 
the resentment of some was unabated, for his in- 
troduction of new practices. They foreboded the 
origin of great mischief from the violation of the 
laws, and considered themselves as called upon by 
piety to hazard their own lives, rather than seem 
to acquiesce in such a change of government, and 
the violent introduction of foreign habits. They 
represented Herod as a king only in pretence, but 
in reality an enemy to their whole nation. On 
this account, ten citizens of Jerusalem conspired, 
and bound themselves to each other by oath, to 
undergo any dangers in their attempt. They 
armed themselves with daggers under their gar- 
ments, for the purpose of killing Herod. Among 
the conspirators there was a blind man, who 

Q 



226 ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 

became a great encourager of the rest, through 
indignation at what he had only heard of. He 
was incapable of affording them personal assist- 
ance, but anxious to share their hazards and risk 
their sufferings. 

With this common resolve, they went into the 
theatre, in the hope that Herod himself could not 
escape them, as they meant to fall on him unex- 
pectedly. But if they missed him, they were 
likely to kill many of his attendants. They deter- 
mined to do this, should they die for it ; by way 
of reading a lesson to the king, on the injuries he 
had done the multitude. The conspirators thus 
prepared, went about their design with alacrity. 
But one of Herod's spies, appointed to hunt out 
conspiracies, discovered this, and told the king of 
it, just as he was going into the theatre. The 
citizens did execution on the informer. Herod 
made a strict scrutiny, and put many to severe 
torture : but he would never have discovered the 
perpetrators of the assassination, had not certain 
women in their agonies confessed what they had 
seen. The authors of the fact were terribly 
punished by the king, and their families destroyed 
for this rash attempt. Herod was not rendered 
more mild by the obstinacy of the people, and 
their constancy in defence of their laws. To pre- 
vent his innovations from producing open rebellion, 
he determined to encompass the multitude on 
every side. 

He now married again. One Simon, a citizen 
of Jerusalem, the son of one Boethus, a citizen of 
Alexandria, and a priest of great note there, had a 
daughter, esteemed the most beautiful woman of 
her time. The people of Jerusalem spoke loudly 



ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 2#7 

in her praise. Herod was much moved by what 
he heard of her ; and when he saw the damsel, 
was smitten with her beauty. But he entertained 
no design of using his authority to abuse her, 
justly believing, that he should so be stigmatised 
with violence and tyranny. He determined there- 
fore to make her his wife. 

In the time of a great famine, he thought it 
politic to use his utmost endeavours in assisting 
his people. He cut off the rich furniture of his 
palace, both silver and gold, without sparing his 
finest, and most elaborately chased vessels. The 
money so raised was sent to Petronius, prefect of 
Egypt, appointed by Caesar, to whom several had 
fled in their necessities. This person was Herod's 
particular friend, and anxious to preserve his sub- 
jects. He gave them leave to export corn, which 
he assisted them in purchasing. He was indeed 
the principal, if not the only person, who gave 
them any help. Herod took care the people 
should understand, that this assistance came from 
himself. He thus removed their past ill opinion, 
and proved his regard and care of them. He 
distributed portions of corn with the utmost ex- 
actness to such as were able to provide their 
own food. The bakers were commissioned to 
make their bread ready for the aged, the infirm, 
and the poor. 

All Herod's designs had now succeeded accord- 
ing to his hopes ; nor had he the least suspicion 
that any troubles could arise in his kingdom. He 
was implacable in the infliction of his punishments, 
and so retained the people in obedience by the 
influence of fear. Yet he had displayed the most 
provident care of them, and behaved in the most 

q 2 



228 ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 

magnanimous manner in their distresses, and thus 
earned, notwithstanding his tyranny, the title of 
Herod the Great. But he took further measures 
for external security, and raised a moral fortress 
for his government, against his subjects. His 
orations to the cities were eloquent, and full of 
benevolent sentiments. He cultivated a politic 
understanding with their governors, and pur- 
chased the friendship of each by seasonable pre- 
sents. He thus secured his kingdom by the 
magnificence of his temper, while his resources 
were continually increasing. Yet his real dispo- 
sition was tyrannical and extravagant, and dis- 
played itself with least reserve in his Grecian 
cities. In the cities of the Jews, even he was 
obliged to be cautious in introducing plays, shows, 
and idolatrous temples, in consequence of a still 
subsisting zeal for the laws of Moses. 

Dean Prideaux, in his excellent Connection of 
the History of the Old and New Testament, has 
an admirable reflection on ambition, in reference 
to Pompey and Caesar, which is applicable to 
tyrants of all ages and countries. " One of them 
could not bear an equal, nor the other a superior : 
And through this ambitious humour and thirst 
after more power in these two men, the whole 
Roman empire being divided into two opposite 
factions, there was produced hereby the most 
destructive war that ever afflicted it. And the 
like folly too much reigns in all other places. 
Could about thirty men be persuaded to live at 
home in peace, without enterprizing upon the 
rights of each other for the vain glory of conquest, 
and the enlargement of power, the whole world 
might be at quiet ; but their ambition, their follies, 



ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 229 

and their humour leading them constantly to en- 
croach upon, and quarrel with each other, they 
involve all that are under them in the mischiefs 
hereof) and many thousands are they which yearly 
perish by it: so that it may almost raise a doubt, 
whether the benefit which the world receives from 
government, be sufficient to make amends for the 
calamities which it suffers from the follies, mistakes, 
and male-administrations of those that manage it." — 
Part ii. book J. 

Among Herod's other public works, he built 
Caasarea. To rectify the inconvenience of an ex- 
posure to the south wind, he laid out such a com- 
pass towards the land as might be sufficient for a 
haven, where ships might lie in safety. This he 
effected by letting down vast stones of above fifty 
feet in length, not less than eighteen in breadth, 
and nine in depth, into twenty fathom deep. Some 
were less, but others exceeded those dimensions. 
He also built a theatre of stone, and on the south 
quarter, behind the port, a very capacious amphi- 
theatre, with an agreeable prospect towards the 
sea. In one passage, the rebuilding and decora- 
tion of CaBsarea is stated to have occupied twelve 
years, in another, ten. The true number cannot 
now probably be determined ; nor is the point of 
the slightest importance. 

While Herod was thus employed, and after he 
had rebuilt Sebaste, the Greek name for Samaria, 
he determined on sending his sons Alexander and 
Aristobulus to Rome, that they might profit by 
Caesar's company. On their arrival they lived at 
the house of Pollio; not the Pharisee twice men- 
tioned by Josephus, but Asinius Pollio the Roman, 
who was much attached to Herod. They had leave 

Q 3 



230 ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 

even to lodge in Caesar's own palace ; for he re- 
ceived them with great kindness, and allowed 
Herod to give his kingdom to whichever of his 
sons he pleased. He also bestowed Trachon* 
Batanea, and Auranitis, on him on the following 
occasion. One Zenodorus, a famous robber in that 
country, mentioned by Strabo, had hired what was 
called the house of Lysanias. Not being satisfied 
with its revenues, he entered into partnership with 
the robbers inhabiting the Trachones, and thus 
procured for himself a larger income. The inha- 
bitants of those districts led an irregular life, and 
pillaged the country of the Damascenes. Zeno- 
dorus did not restrain them, but shared the booty. 
When these transactions were laid before Caesar, 
he directed Varro to destroy those haunts of ban- 
ditti, and give the land to Herod, that by his care 
the neighbourhood might no longer be disturbed. 
These habits of robbery had been so long in use, 
that it was not easy to restrain them. Having 
neither city nor lands of their own, but only some 
retreats and caves, where they and their cattle lived 
in common, they had no other means of subsist- 
ence. But they had made contrivances to get 
pools of water, constructed granaries for corn, and 
were capable of a fierce resistance, by sudden sal- 
lies against invaders. The entrances of their sub- 
terranean dens also were too narrow for more than 
one to enter at a time, and the interior very large 
and wide. The ground over their dwellings was 
not very high, but rather on a plain. The rocks 
were difficult of access, and the proper road scarcely 
to be found without a guide, on account of its in- 
tricacy. When Herod had received this grant 
from Caesar, he procured experienced guides, ar- 



ON THE HISTORY1DF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 231 

rested the robbers in their career, and restored 
the peaceable inhabitants of the neighbourhood to 
quiet. 

When Herod had reigned seventeen years, Caesar 
came into Syria. At this time the inhabitants of 
Gadara were almost universally clamorous against 
Herod for the severity of his injunctions and his 
tyranny. They were encouraged in these com- 
plaints by Zenodorus, who swore he would never 
desist till he had separated them from Herod's 
kingdom, and united them to Caesar's province. 
The Gadarens became the more bold, because 
those who had been delivered up by Agrippa had 
not been punished by Herod, but dismissed with- 
out harm. It was a strong peculiarity in Herod's 
character, that he was inexorably severe in his in- 
flictions on the criminals of his own family, but 
generous in remitting the offences of strangers. 
While they accused Herod of injuries, of robbery, 
and of sacrilege, he stood unconcerned, and ready 
to enter on his defence. Caesar gave him his right 
hand, and abated not his kindness on this disturb- 
ance from the multitude. These allegations were 
brought forward on the first day, but the hearing 
proceeded no further. The Gadarens saw the 
temper of Caesar and his assessors, and naturally 
expected to be delivered up to the king. So 
great was their dread of torture, that some cut 
their own throats in the night, others threw them- 
selves down precipices, and others cast themselves 
into the river. This self-destruction was taken as 
self-condemnation of their rashness, and the crimes 
they had committed. Caesar lost no time in pub- 
licly acquitting Herod. Another lucky accident 
at this time contributed to aggrandise Herod. Ze- 

q 4> 



23<2 ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 

nodorus died of haemorrhage, at Antioch in Syria. 
Caesar bestowed his country, of considerable ex- 
tent, on Herod. It lay between Trachon and Ga- 
lilee, containing Ulatha, Paneas, and the adjoining 
country. He also made him one of the procurators 
of Syria, and commanded that nothing should be 
done without his approbation. In short, he arrived 
at such a height of prosperity, that at a time when 
there were but two men who governed the vast 
Roman empire, first, Caesar, and then his principal 
favourite Agrippa* Caesar preferred no one but 
Agrippa to Herod ; and Agrippa entertained more 
friendship for Herod than for any one but Caesar. 

The rebuilding of the temple is attended with 
many difficulties. Herod is stated to have taken 
away the old foundations, and to have laid others 
on which he erected the temple, being in length 
a hundred cubits, and in height twenty additional 
cubits, which twenty, upon the sinking of their 
foundations, fell down. Some architects have sup- 
posed Josephus to mean, that the entire found- 
ations of the holy house sunk to the depth of no 
less than twenty cubits. This is impossible, when 
we consider that the temple stood on a rocky 
mountain. Neither the expression nor the subject 
is very clear ; but we must suppose that the found- 
ations which sunk were those of the additional 
twenty cubits only ; or rather, as in modern archi- 
tecture we do not comprehend the laying of se- 
cond foundations on a superstructure already 
erected, that the cubits themselves above the hun- 
dred fell down in consequence of being made pur- 
posely weak not to be too heavy for the building, 
and merely for show and grandeur. 

Agrippa's preparation for building the minor 
parts of the temple twenty cubits higher, men- 



ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 233 

tioned by Josephus in another passage, must in all 
probability refer to this accident, as he says, in the 
passage now under consideration, that what had 
fallen down in Herod's time they resolved to raise 
again in the days of Nero. Now it was under Nero 
that Agrippa made his preparation. Josephus is 
not unfrequently obscure, from inaccuracy of ex- 
pression, which is naturally to be expected from a 
person writing in a foreign language. A little 
farther on he calls Solomon the first king of the 
Jews. It appears from other passages, in which 
he is more careful, that he meant no more than 
that he was the first of David's posterity, and the 
first builder of the temple. 

It was in the sixteenth year of his reign that 
Herod rebuilt the temple, and encompassed a piece 
of land about it with a wall, which land was twice 
as large as that before enclosed. 

After many family quarrels, Herod was recon- 
ciled to his sons by the feeling conduct of Alex- 
ander, on his trial for treason against Caesar, on the 
accusation of Antipater. The young man could 
scarcely speak for grief: but though he was in 
danger, both from the craft of his half-brother and 
the rash folly of Herod, he modestly avoided lay- 
ing any imputation on his father, but with great 
force of reasoning refuted the calumnies vented 
against himself. He demonstrated the innocence 
of his own brother, who was involved in the same 
danger. He then bew T ailed the malice and treachery 
of Antipater, and the disgrace he had brought on the 
whole family. But this reinstatement of family good 
understanding endured not ; for Antipater by his 
flatteries could make Herod do what he pleased. 
His influence could prevail even when that of 



234 ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 

his sister Salome was ineffectual. To her, indeed, 
he ultimately behaved with much harshness. Cae- 
sar's wife, Julia, had inspired her with a strong 
inclination to marry Sylleus the Arabian, and she 
applied with earnestness to Herod for his consent. 
He swore he would esteem her as his bitterest 
enemy, unless she would give up that project. 
Not content with this, he married her, against her 
own will, to his friend Alexas, and made one of 
her daughters marry the son of Alexas, and the 
other he gave to Antipater's uncle by the mother's 
side. But there was no end to these family feuds. 
Pheroras was obstinate in retaining his wife, a wo- 
man of low family, and refused to marry one nearly 
related to Herod, though he so earnestly desired 
it. That wife's admission to the counsels of the 
principal ladies about the court is not easily to be 
reconciled with Herod's open importunity as to 
the divorce of Pheroras, and his subsequent mar- 
riage. The most plausible account to be given of 
this, as represented by Josephus, is by presuming 
Pheroras's belief, and Herod's suspicion, that the 
prediction of the Pharisees would prove true. The 
purport of it was, that the crown of Judea should be 
translated from Herod to the posterity of Pheroras : 
he probably believed, and Herod feared, that the 
posterity signified was to descend from his actual, 
and not from a future wife. In debating this 
question, Herod told Pheroras he would give him 
his choice of two things ; to be on good terms 
with himself as a brother, or with his wife. Phe- 
roras answered, he would rather die than forsake 
his wife. Herod knew not what more to do. He 
directed his speech to Antipater, and charged him 
to have no intercourse either with the wife of Phe- 



ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 235 

roras, or with Pheroras himself, or with any one be- 
longing to her. Antipater did not disobey that in- 
junction publicly : buthe went in secretto their noc- 
turnal meeting. Being afraid that Salome watched 
his proceedings, he procured leave, by means of 
his Italian friends, to go and live at Rome. Those 
friends wrote word that it was proper for Antipater 
to be sent to Caesar for some time. Herod dismissed 
him without delay, splendidly attended, with a large 
sum of money, and gave him his will to carry, con- 
taining the bequest of the kingdom to Antipater, 
and appointing Herod for Antipater's successor. 
The Herod here meant by Josephus is not Herod 
the tetrarch, but the son of Mariamne, the high- 
priest Simon's daughter. 

Herod soon after this laboured under the com- 
plicated evils of a severe distemper, old age, and a 
melancholy state of mind. He was already almost 
seventy years of age, and had been prematurely 
weighed down by the calamities he had sustained 
respecting his children. His life was attended with 
no pleasure, even when in health. He was grieved 
that Antipater, whose character had been fully de- 
veloped since his return from Rome, was still alive. 
This aggravated his disease ; and he resolved to 
put him to death, though not suddenly or rashly. 
He determined that as soon as he should be well 
again, his execution should take place publicly. It 
did so ; and his own death immediately ensued. 
He survived the slaughter of his son only five days. 

Herod had reigned thirty-four years since the 
time when he procured the death of Antigonus, 
and obtained his kingdom : thirty-seven years since 
he had been made king by the Romans. At his 
funeral there was a bier entirely of gold, em- 



%36 ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 

broidered with precious stones, and a purple bed 
of various contexture, with the dead body on it, 
covered with purple. A diadem was set on his 
head, and a crown of gold above it, a sceptre in 
his right hand. Herod's sons were near the bier, 
and a great number of his kindred. Next to them 
came his guards, and the regiment of Thracians. 
The Germans were there, and the Gauls, all ac- 
coutred as if they were going to war. The rest of 
the army took precedence, armed, and following 
their captains and officers with military regularity. 
After them, five hundred of his domestic servants 
and freed-men followed with sweet spices in their 
hands. The body was carried two hundred fur- 
longs, to Herodium, where he had given his own 
directions to be buried. 

There are few characters in biography which 
furnish more abundance or variety of incident, 
more scope for political and moral reflection, than 
this of Herod. But his life was so active, and his 
turns of fortune, both domestic and public, so fre- 
quent, that it is impossible within the compass of 
an essay like this, to do more than to make a se- 
lection of events and characteristic anecdotes, from 
the long and detailed narrative of Josephus. 

Herod the tetrarch was the son of Herod the 
Great. When Cyrenius had disposed of Arche- 
laus's money, and when the taxation was con- 
cluded, which was made in the thirty-seventh year 
after Caesar's victory over Antony at Actium, Jo- 
azar was deprived of the high-priesthood, a dignity 
conferred upon him by the multitude. Ananus 
the son of Seth was appointed high-priest. Herod- 
Antipas and Philip had each of them received 
their, own tetrarchy, and had established their af- 



ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 237 

fairs on a permanent footing. The ethnarchy of 
Archelaus, another son of Herod, brother of Philip 
and Antipas, had fallen into a Roman province. 
When Salome died, she bequeathed both her to- 
parchy and Jamnia, besides her plantation of 
palm-trees in Phasaelis, to Julia, the wife of Au- 
gustus. When the Roman empire was translated 
to Tiberius, the son of Julia, upon the death of 
Augustus, who had reigned fifty-seven years six 
months and two days, both Herod and Philip re- 
mained in their tetrarchies. The latter built the 
city of Caesarea, at the fountains of Jordan, and in 
the region of Paneas ; besides the city Julias, in the 
lower Gaulanitis. Herod built the city of Tiberias 
in Galilee, and another also called Julias in Perea 
beyond Jordan. It is on the accession of Tiberias 
to the empire, that Josephus inserts that famous 
testimony concerning Jesus Christ. In a homily 
also, having just mentioned Christ, as God the 
Word, and the Judge of the World, appointed by 
the Father, he adds, that he had himself spoken 
elsewhere about him more nicely or particularly. 

After terms of peace had been agreed upon be- 
tween Artabanus and Vitellius, Herod the tetrarch 
erected a rich tent on the temporary bridge over 
the Euphrates, and made a feast there. After this 
Vitellius went to Antioch, and Artabanus to Ba- 
bylon. Herod, desirous of giving Caesar the first 
intimation that they had obtained hostages, sent 
couriers with letters, leaving nothing for the con- 
sular Vitellius to tell. For on the arrival of his 
letters, Tiberius let him know that he was ac- 
quainted with the whole transaction already. Vitel- 
lius was much troubled at this, conceiving himself 
a greater sufferer by the anticipation than he really 



238 ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 

was. He therefore cherished a secret anger, wait- 
ing for revenge, which he took after Caius had 
succeeded to the government. Soon after this 
time, a quarrel took place between Aretas, king of 
Arabia Petraea, and Herod, on the following occa- 
sion. Herod the tetrarch had married the daughter 
of Aretas, and had lived with her a great while. 
Once, when he was at Rome, he lodged with He- 
rod, his brother, but not by the same mother. This 
Herod was the son of the high-priest Simon's 
daughter, and seems to have had the additional 
name of Philip, as Antipas was named Herod- An- 
tipas, Antipas and Antipater have the appearance 
of being the very same name ; yet two sons of 
Herod the Great bore those names. So might 
Philip the tetrarch and this Herod- Philip be two 
different sons of the same father. It was not Philip 
the tetrarch, but this Herod-Philip, whose wife Herod 
the tetrarch had married in her first husband's 
life- time, and that, although that first husband had 
issue by her. For this adulterous and incestuous 
marriage John the Baptist justly reproved Herod 
the tetrarch. For this reproof Salome, the daughter 
of Herodias, by her first husband Herod-Philip, 
who was still alive, occasioned him to be unjustly 
beheaded. This last Herod's wife, with whom the 
tetrarch fell in love, was the daughter of their bro- 
ther Aristobulus, and the sister of Agrippa the 
Great. The tetrarch ventured to talk to her about 
marriage. She allowed of his addresses. An agree- 
ment was made that she should change her resi- 
dence, and come to him as soon as he should re- 
turn from Rome. One article of the contract was, 
that he should divorce the daughter of Aretas. 
Antipas, when he had made this bargain, sailed 



ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 2£>9 

to Rome, transacted his business, and returned. 
His wife had discovered the transaction with He- 
rodias ; but her husband was not aware that she 
was acquainted with the whole design. She de- 
sired him to send her to Machasrus, a place on the 
borders of Aretas and Herod's dominions, carefully 
concealing her own intentions. Herod accordingly 
complied with his wife's request on the supposition 
of her ignorance. But she had sent some time before 
to Machserus, as being under her father's govern- 
ment. All things necessary for her journey were got 
in readiness by the general of Aretas's army. Thus 
she soon reached Arabia, under the conduct of 
the several generals, who carried her from one to 
another successively, so that she soon came to her 
father, and told him of Herod's projects. This 
was the first occasion of quarrel between Aretas 
and Herod, though the latter had some variance 
with the former about their limits in the country 
of Gemalitis. They raised armies on both sides, 
and prepared for war, sending their generals to 
fight instead of themselves. When they had joined 
battle, Herod's whole army was destroyed by the 
treachery of some fugitives, who though they were 
of Philip's tetrarchy, had joined Herod's army. 
Herod wrote on these subjects to Tiberius, who 
was very angry at the attempt of Aretas. He au- 
thorised Vitellius to make war upon him, and 
either to take him alive and bring him in bonds, 
or to kill him and send his head. Some of the 
Jews considered the destruction of Herod's army 
as a just judgment from God, for his proceeding 
against John surnamed the Baptist. Josephus here 
bears testimony to him whom Herod slew, as a 
good man, recommending virtue, righteousness, 



£40 ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 

and piety, through baptism. The great popularity 
of this preacher alarmed Herod, lest the people 
should enable him to raise a rebellion. He there- 
fore gladly embraced an opportunity of putting 
him to death, lest he should fall into difficulties by 
sparing a man who might make him repent of his 
forbearance. He was accordingly sent a prisoner 
to the before-mentioned castle of Machserus, and 
there put to death. The Jews naturally enter- 
tained an opinion that the loss of the army was a 
punishment on Herod, and a mark of God's dis- 
pleasure. 

Herodias, Agrippa's sister, lived as wife to He- 
rod the tetrarch of Galilee and Perea. She felt 
envious at the great authority of her brother when 
she saw a greater dignity bestowed on him than on 
her husband. Her brother had absconded from 
inability to pay his debts. He was now come back, 
in the high road to dignity and good fortune. She 
urged to Herod, that though he formerly was not 
concerned to be in a lower condition than his fa- 
ther, the author of his birth, he should now aim at 
the dignity to which his kinsman had arrived. She 
told him not to endure the contempt, that a man 
who had admired his riches, should be in greater 
honour than himself. He must not suffer Agrippa's 
poverty to purchase greater things than their abun- 
dance. It would be shameful to stand lower than 
one who, the other day, lived on the charity of his 
family. 

These arguments had their effect on his corrupt 
mind, and produced those mutual family machin- 
ations so common in those times and countries. 
On the accession of Caius, he released Agrippa, 
who had been in bonds, and gave the tetrarchy of 



ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 241 

Philip, who was now dead. When Agrippa had 
arrived at that dignity, he kindled the ambition of 
his brother tetrarch, who was chiefly induced to 
hope for the royal authority by his wife Herodias.* 
She reproached him for his sloth, and said it was 
only because he would not pay his personal com- 
pliments to the new Caesar, that he was not raised 
to that high dignity. Caesar had made Agrippa 
king from a private station. Much more would he 
advance him from a tetrarchy to that rank. Herod 
complied, and went to Caius, who punished him 
for his ambition, by banishing him into Spain. 
Agrippa had followed him to prefer an accusation. 
Caius added this tetrarchy also to Agrippa' s pre- 
vious honours. Herod died in Spain, whither his 
wife had followed him. 



* Delrius, in his Disquisitiones Magicae, states that Hero- 
dias was sometimes identified with the fairy queen. The term 
the learned Jesuit applies to her is saltalricula : and he gravely 
argues against the abominable heresy of believing that she any 
longer leads choral dances on earth. This is second only to 
the absurdity of the romance writers, who make Mercury the 
prince of the fairies ; and in Orfeo and Henrodis, convert the 
Grecian story of Orpheus and Eurydice into a Gothic tale, 
graciously conferring on Heurodis the kingdom of Winchester, 
the ancient name of which was Thrace ! Orpheus's father was 
descended from King Pluto, and his mother from King Juno. 
The tale ends melodramatically, and not tragically. Orpheus 
does not act so like a blockhead as in the Greek version : he 
makes his escape good, and they both reign safe and sound at 
Winchester. The history of John the Baptist was considered 
by our ancestors as altogether mysterious, and gave rise to a 
great number of superstitious practices on St. John's Eve, 
particularly that of fern-seed, alluded to by Shakspeare in 
Henry IV,: — " We have the receipt of fern-seed ; we walk in- 
visible." 



242 



ON THE CHARACTER OF MUCIUS SC^EVOLA. 



When Porsena, king of Clusium in Etruria, was 
besieging Rome, provisions became exceedingly 
scarce and dear in that city. This partisan of the 
Tarquins entertained hopes, that by converting the 
siege into a blockade, he should become master 
of the town. Caius Mucins, a noble youth, was 
filled with indignation, to think that the Roman 
people while in bondage under their kings, should 
never have been besieged by an enemy in any war, 
and yet that the same people, now in a state of 
freedom, were blockaded by those very Etrurians 
whose armies they had often routed. He resolved 
therefore, by some great and daring effort, to 
remove such reproach. Livy says, " Primo sua 
sponte penetrare in hostium castra constituit dein 
metuens, ne, si consulum injussu et ignaris omni- 
bus iret, forte deprehensus a custodibus Romanis 
retraheretur ut transfuga, for tuna turn nobis crimen 
adfirmante, senatum adiit, 'Transire Tiberim,' 
inquit, ' Patres, et intrare, si possim, castra ho- 
stium volo ; non praedo, nee populationum in vicem 
ultor. majus, si Dii juvant, in animo est facinus.' 
Adprobant Patres : abdito intra vestem ferro, 
proficiscitur." * The passages marked in italics 

* Lib. ii. cap. 12. 



ON THE CHARACTER OF MUCIUS SC^VOLA. 243 

show, that in stating this extraordinary fact, so 
much the admiration of schoolboys, Livy is sen- 
sible that the action itself was criminal, and that 
the condition to which the city of Rome was re- 
duced, was the only apology for the baseness of 
assassination. We mast, with our superior lights, 
say that no distress, no approbation even of a Roman 
senate, no specious gloss of the historian, can justify 
the morality of such a proceeding. 

It was now the second year after the expulsion 
of the kings. Porsena considered Rome as already 
sufficiently reduced to admit of their restoration. 
He was celebrating a sacrifice, to propitiate the 
gods in favour of that event : Mucius could not 
venture to enquire which was Porsena, lest his not 
knowing the king should discover him to be a 
stranger. He was therefore obliged to trust to 
fortune and probability. A secretary was close to 
the king, in the act of paying the soldiers, whose 
attention therefore was more immediately directed 
to him. Porsena himself rather seemed to be per- 
forming the duties of a priest. This probably led 
Mucius to mistake the secretary for the king, so 
that he killed him instead of the intended victim. 
When brought before the king's tribunal, he stood 
there single, among a crowd of enemies. Even in 
this situation, deserted by fortune and threatened 
with the severest tortures, he declared himself to 
be a Roman citizen ; his name Caius Mucius. He 
seemed in fact more capable of alarming the in- 
vader, than of feeling terror in his own person. 
He says to him, " Proinde in hoc discrimen, si 
juvat adcingere, ut in singulas horas capite dimi- 
ces tuo ; ferrum hostemque in vestibulo -habeas 
regiae. Hoc tibi juventus Romana indicimus 

r 2 



244 ON THE CHARACTER OF MUCIUS SC^EVOLA. 

bellum. Nullam aciem, nullum praelium timueris. 
Uni tibi, et cum singulis res erit. Quum rex, 
simul ira infensus, periculoque conterritus, cir- 
cumdari ignes minitabundus juberet, nisi expromeret 
propere, quas insidiarum sibi minas per ambages 
jaceret: ' En tibi,' inquit, 'ut sentias, quam vile 
corpus sit Us, qui magnam gloriam vident : ' dex- 
tramque accenso ad sacrificium foculo injicit. quam 
quum velut alienato ab sensu torreret animo ; prope 
adtonitus miraculo rex, quum ab sede sua prosi- 
luisset, amoverique ab altaribus juvenem jussisset, 
« Tu vero abi,* inquit, « in te magis, quam in me 
hostilia ausus.' " 

For the purpose of fixing the admiration on the 
proper point of this story, and at the same time to 
do Livy justice, it must be remarked, that the for- 
titude here displayed, and that of the passive kind, 
is the part of Scaevola's conduct proposed as an 
example, and the only part to be adopted in spirit, 
by those who have occasion to show their reso- 
lution, under circumstances less shocking and 
incredible. I say incredible ; and it is remarkable 
that Dionysius has omitted this part of the romantic 
scene, described by Livy with so much ostentation. 
He simply imputes to Mucius the politic con- 
trivance of inventing the story of the three hundred 
youths to save himself. His character in the 
Greek historian does indeed descend from its 
heroics. But according to Livy, whose narrative 
is best known and most popular, Porsena finishes 
his address by saying, << I dismiss you untouched 
and unhurt ; and discharge you from the penalties 
which by the laws of war I have a right to inflict." 
Mucius felt inclined to make some return for this 
act of favour, and spoke to him thus : — " Since I 



OX THE CHARACTER OF MUCIUS SCEVOLA. £45 

find you disposed to honour braveiy, you shall 
obtain from me by kindness what threats could not 
extort. Know then, that three hundred of us, the 
principal youths in Rome, have bound ourselves 
to each other by an oath, to attack you in this 
manner. My lot happened to be first. The others 
will be with you, each in his turn, as the lot may 
place him foremost, until fortune shall furnish an 
opportunity of succeeding against you." 

Mucins was then dismissed, and was followed 
to Rome by ambassadors from Porsena. The king 
had been deeply affected, not only by the action, 
but by the asseveration, that Rome possessed many 
such resolute devotees. He had before experienced 
the existence of a similar spirit. Horatius Codes, 
Horace with the Single-eye, had alone stopped the 
same Porsena from passing the Sublician bridge, 
till it was broken down behind him. Though 
wounded, he swam across the river to his friends. 
He was lame ever after : but he used to say, that 
every step he took gave him joy of his triumph. 
The occasion of the peace also converted Porsena' s 
anger into admiration. He spoke of Clcelia's ex- 
ploit as superior even to those of Codes and 
Mucius. He therefore proposed the following 
alternative. Should the hostage not be given up, 
he would consider the treaty as broken off; should 
she be surrendered, he would send her back to her 
friends in safety. 

There is something very noble in the character 
of Porsena. His engagement with the Tarquins, 
and natural predilection in favour of royalty, 
placed him in the wrong : but he was open to 
conviction ; and the extraordinary accidents which 
had happened to himself gave him an opportunity 

b 3 



£46 ON THE CHARACTER OF MUCIUS SCiEVOLA, 

of extricating himself with a good grace, and of 
leaving that liberty to the Romans, which they 
knew so well how to defend. 

The loss of his right hand by burning procured 
for Mucius, or Mutius, the surname of Scaevola, 
the Left-handed. We see here, in the case of 
Horatius Codes, and in a thousand others, that the 
Roman surnames ran much on personal peculiarities 
or defects, as in the case of Cicero. 

The senate gave a tract of ground on the other 
side of the Tiber to Caius Mucius, as a reward of 
his valour. These lands were afterwards called 
the Mucian meadows. The honour thus paid to 
courage seems to have excited even the other sex 
to merit public distinctions, which were so amply 
given to Clcelia. 

Martial has two epigrams on this subject. The 
first is in lib. i. : — 

DE PORSENA ET MUCIO SC^VOLA. 

Cum peteret regem, decepta satellite, dextra 

Ingessit sacris se peritura focis. 
Sed tarn saeva pius miracula non tulit hostis, 

Et raptum flammis jussit abire virum. 
Urere quam potuit contemto Mucius igne, 

Hunc spectare manum Porsena non potuit. 
Major deceptae fama est et gloria dextrae: 

Si non errasset, fecerat ilia minus. 

The other is in lib. x. The point of it is not so 
obvious as in the former : — 

DE MUCIO. 

In matutina nuper spectatus arena 

Mucius, imposuit qui sua membra focis, 

Si patiens forti^que tibi durusque videtur, 
Abderitanae pectora plebis habes. 



ON THE CHARACTER OF MUCIUS SC^EVOLA. 247 

Nam, cum dicatur, tunica praesente molesta, 
Ure manum ; plus est dicere, Non facio. 

It is to be understood that Martial was no friend 
to violence, and least of all to self-violence. He 
was not ambitious to think "with the sages of Abde- 
ra> a city of Thrace, whose very air was thought 
to teem with stupidity or madness. He therefore 
pronounces it less bold spontaneously to burn a 
limb, than to refuse to do so : especially where the 
torturing tunic, lined with various combustibles, 
must be expected as the immediate consequence. 
The last word of the epigram, which the elliptic 
idiom of the Latin language uses in the sense of 
sacrificing, has given rise to the conjecture that 
Martial alludes to some Christian criminal, ad- 
mired even by enemies, and placed on a higher 
pinnacle of self-devotion than Mucius, for refusing 
facere, to offer incense to the heathen deities. At 
all events, the drift is philosophical, in raising 
passive above active courage. 



r 4 



248 



ON CICERO. 



1 here is no work of more universal acceptance, 
from the time of its publication down to this pe- 
riod, than Dr. Middleton's History of Cicero's Life, 
which is, in fact, the history of Cicero's times. 
Nor could it be otherwise. From the first ad- 
vancement of that eminent man to public magis- 
tracies, there was not any thing of moment trans- 
acted in the state, in which he did not bear an 
eminent part. From the very time of his birth, 
the crisis of the Roman affairs was preparing; and 
for sixty years, the events which passed in succes- 
sion were the most important, the characters of 
the persons who conducted, or were affected by 
them, the most dignified and interesting to be met 
with in the annals of Rome, or perhaps of the 
world. 

Dr. Middleton had an honourable object in view ; 
to rescue the character of Cicero from the obloquy 
cast on it by the writers who curried favour in the 
court of the emperors by misrepresenting the cha- 
racters and motives of all the great patriots. Thus 
Dio opens his forty-fourth book in the following 
manner : — 

'0 ph ovv Kcti<roig tolvV ovtcos (b$ nut S7r) tov$ UagOovg g-poc 
tsv<twv svrpctfcsv* oig-gos ds tkt)v StXtl^picod^g, <pQ6vcp rs rov Tapo<T' 
YjKOv1o$, xct) picrei tov T&gOTeTi[XYi[j,svov Q-tpobv, i&gocr'Trevwv, sxeivov, 



ON CICERO. 249 

Tf avoy,w$ ebrsxlstve, xonvov txvo<rlou Sofas ovopct tzqovXoL&wv, xou 
roL \|/»jpi<r0evT« disa-xsdotcrs' fours i§ ts uvQtg If bpovola$, xou -cro- 
Xsfxovg kp$vkiov; to~i$ 'Vw^ulois <sfaps(rxsvot<rsv. 

The opposition of Dio's character and principles 
to those of the republican party is evident through- 
out his work, and so clearly to be accounted for, 
that his testimony becomes of none effect. He 
flourished under the most tyrannical of the em- 
perors, by whom he was advanced to great dignity. 
He was the creature of despotic power, and en- 
deavoured to prove his gratitude by blasting every 
name connected with the interests of patriotism. 
The writings of Cicero, if allowed their fair influ- 
ence, were likely to revive the ancient zeal and 
spirit of liberty, so long the peculiar characteristic 
of the Romans. The entire bearing of Dio's his- 
tory is to establish the preference of absolute mo- 
narchy, rather than a free government on the 
principles of democracy, as most in unison with the 
interests of the Roman state. 

The character of Cicero, as a moral writer, can- 
not be mistaken. In point of style, we find an 
elegance, a spirit, and a dignity, which render the 
form of virtue visible, and therefore amiable ; and 
the sentiments which that style embodies are such 
as prove that he was sincerely inspired with the 
love of that intrinsic excellence his pencil could so 
well delineate. 

Nothing in all ancient literature gives so clear an 
insight into the history of the times in question as 
Cicero^s letters to Atticus. They render the in- 
trigues of the crisis obvious, the motives and in- 
terests of the parties intelligible: they illustrate 
what we learn from other authors, and explain 
what other authors have left in uncertainty, or tell 



<25G ON CICERO. 

what they have omitted. Diodorus Siculus com- 
mences his work by stating the obligations of man- 
kind to historians : TaTj raf xoivotg Ifopltxg 'srgoty^ulsva-cx.- 

fj*evois psyukcit ^agilug onrovef&eiv ftlxtxiov T&u.v'la.s <kvQgw7rov§, on 
to!$ Wioig womijs oo(psKYi<ron rov xoivov filov lpjXo7*jU^0ij<rav- 

If the general historian be so great a benefactor, 
those who have left records of their genuine mind, 
who have detailed in familiar correspondence the 
views and the policy of their contemporaries, whe- 
ther friendly or hostiJe, the accidental conference 
in the forum, or the unguarded table-talk at the 
banquet, are entitled to a large portion of our 
thanks. The sunshine of history is too often ob- 
scured by mists, and the day closes prematurely : 
when the darkness is thus superinduced, memoirs 
and correspondence become the gas-lights of times 
past. 

To understand the condition of Rome at the 
time of Cicero's birth, it is necessary to have some 
general idea of the government from its first insti- 
tution by Romulus. Cicero himself celebrates the 
Roman constitution as the most perfect of all go- 
vernments ; and in his theory we may nearly trace 
the beau iddal of our own: — " Statuo esse op time 
constitutam rempublicam, quae ex tribus generibus 
illis, regali, optimo, et populari confusa modice, 
nee puniendo irritet animum immanem ac ferum, 
nee omnia praeter mitten do, licentia cives deteriores 
reddat." — Fragm, de Rep. 2. 

Their king was elected by the people, as the 
head of the republic, to be their leader in war, the 
guardian of the laws in peace. The senate was his 
council, chosen also by the people, by whose ad- 
vice he was obliged to govern himself in all his 
measures. The sovereignty was lodged in the 



ON CICERO. 251 

body of the citizens, or the general society, whose 
prerogative it was to enact laws, create magistrates, 
declare war, and receive appeals in all cases, both 
from the king and the senate. Some writers have 
denied this right of appeal to the people. Let us 
see what Cicero says on the subject: — " Nam cum a 
primo urbis ortu, regiis institutis, partim etiam le- 
gibus, auspicia, cseremoniae, comitia, provocationes, 
patrum consilium, equitum peditumque descriptio, 
tota res militaris, divinitus esset constituta; turn 
progressio admirabilis, incredibilisque cursus ad 
omnem excellentiam factus est, dominatu regio 
republica liberata." — Tusc. Qucest. lib. iv. cap. 1. 

Seneca quotes a passage from his Treatise on the 
Republic, in confirmation of this doctrine : — " Cum 
Ciceronis libros de Rep. prehendit hinc philologus 
aliquis, hinc grammaticus, hinc philosophise deditus: 
alius alio curam sibi mittit. . . . Praeterea notat, 
eum quern nos dictatorem dicimus,« et in historiis 
ita nominari legimus, apud antiquos magistrum 
populi vocatum. . . . Provocationem ad populum 
etiam a regibus fuisse. Id ita in Pontificialibus li- 
bris aliqui putant, et Fenestella," — Se?iec. ep. 108. 
Valerius Maximus gives an instance confirmed by 
Livy : — " M. Horatius, interfectse sororis crimine a 
Tullo rege damnatus, ad populum provectojudicio, 
absolutus est.*' — Val. Max, lib. viii. cap. 1. 

By the revolution in the government, their old 
constitution was not changed, but restored to its 
primitive state. The name of king was abolished, 
but the power was retained. The difference was, 
that instead of choosing a single person for life, 
they chose two annually under the designation of 
consuls, invested with all the prerogatives and en- 
signs of royalty, and presiding as the kings had 



252 ON CICERO. 

done, in all the public business of the common- 
wealth. To convince the citizens that nothing was 
sought by the change but to secure their common 
liberty, and to re-establish their sovereignty on a 
more solid basis, P. Valerius Poplicola, one of the 
first consuls, made it capital for any man to exercise 
magistracy in Rome without their special appoint- 
ment. 'EiTsgov 8s, h w ysygurrloii, sav rig apxoov'Vcjopctiwv rivoL 
uvroxlelveiv, yj pctfiyovv, y gyjpiovv eij %^/xa7a SehY), h^eivon 
to) ISiwty} 'srgoxa.XslaSon tyjv olq^v £7n tyjv tov typou xplcriv, tzol- 
<T%eiv ds iv too pslccZb ^povw. [AY)$h uno ty)§ ocg^Yig, eoo$ civ 6 Sij/Aoj 

wig avTov 4/Yt<plorY)Tca. — Dionys. Hal. lib. V. 

The conduct of Poplicola, when suspected of 

aspiring to the sovereignty, was consistent with 

these his enactments. Livy says, " Haec dicta vulgo 

creditaque quum indignitate angerent consulis ani- 

mum, vocato ad consilium populo, submissis fasci- 

bus in concionem escendit." This lowering of 

the maces became the constant practice with all 

succeeding consuls : besides which, Poplicola, on 

this occasion, took the axes out of the fasces, nor 

were they ever afterwards carried by the consuls 

within the city. Cicero himself thus describes 

the parties in the city : — " Duo genera semper in 

hac civitate fuerunt eorum, qui versari in republica, 

atque in ea se excellentius gerere studuerunt : qui- 

bus ex generibus alteri se populares, alteri opti- 

mates et haberi et esse voluerunt. Qui ea, quae 

faciebant, quaeque dicebant, multitudini jucunda 

esse volebant, populares : qui autem ita se gerebant, 

ut sua consilia optimo cuique probarent, optimates 

habebantur." — Pro Sext. cap. 45. 

These contending factions were naturally jealous 
of each other, and desirous of extending their own 
power. The nobles, or patricians, composing the 



ON CICERO. 253 

senate, were the most immediate gainers by the 
change. With the consuls at their head, they were 
now the first movers and the efficient organs of all 
state measures. This gave them the preponderance 
in the balance against the people on a majority of 
occasions, notwithstanding the provisions made for 
popular controul. Within the short space of six- 
teen years, the senate became so insolent and op- 
pressive, as to drive the plebeians to their celebrated 
secession into the sacred mount. They refused to 
return till they had extorted permission to create a 
new order of magistrates, of their own body, with 
the consent and sanction of the opposite party. 

'ESoxej tuvtol Tnudij ku) yga(ps1on vrgo$ aurou not) toov crvvug^ov 
Iwv* 08s 6 voy,og sg-i' Aty*/agp£0V otttovlcc, covirsQ hoc -sroAAcov, j&MjSejj 
fxrj^h uvuyxctgsToo Iqclv., pj$e y.us'iyovTco, pj§e eiriroiTTSTO [xotfi- 
yovv sTspcp, fj.Yfie olttoxIivvvtoj, p$s omoxlelveiv xeXsvsroo. eotv ds 
t<£ tcjov u7rYiyogev[j,evcjQV ri istoiy)o-yj 9 e£ayjfO£ sfoo, xot) to. ^pYj^ulu 
avTOU AyfAvfipo; legot.' tied 6 xlslvag two. tcov rauroc dgyuo-[j,evoov, 
tpovov xuQotgos ig-a?. xau hoc pr) slg to Xovtov tco l^op s^ov<ri<x 
ysvrjTon x(xla%<xu<Toti rovds tov vojj.ov, aAA* e\$ tucala tov %g6vov 
ctxlvYJlog dnxy,slvYj, 'usoxvtuc, stu^yj 'Fcofxalovg 5[j,oq~<xi xctQ' Ugcvv, y) 
M v XP^ (rs(r ^ cci T <$ Mfi ? xa ' oLVTohg TioCi syyovov; tov ae* %povov.-— 

Dion. Hal. lib. vi. 

The name of Marcus, like all first names among 
the Romans, was properly personal. It was imposed 
with ceremonies in some degree analogous with 
those of baptism in Christian countries. " Est etiam 
Nundina Romanorum Dea, a nono die nascentium 
nuncupata, qui lustricus dicitur. Est autem dies 
lustricus, quo infantes lustrantur, et nomen acci- 
piunt." — Macrobii Saturnaliorum, lib. i. 

The child was on this occasion carried to the 
temple, by the friends and relations of the family, 



254 ON CICERO, 

and recommended to the protection of some tutelar 
deity, before the altars of the gods. 

Cicero never misses an opportunity of magnifying 
his own profession, In his first book De Oratore 
he observes : — "Est enim sine dubio domus juris- 
consulti totius oraculum civitatis." He pays this 
compliment to Quintus Mucius, whose hall, though 
he himself was infirm and advanced in years, was 
the daily resort of the citizens. The description ap- 
plies indeed to the other Scaevola as well as to the 
Augur. He elsewhere described the latter as open- 
ing his doors for admission at day-break, and never 
having been seen in bed, notwithstanding his age 
and infirmities, during the whole of the Mar sic war. 

The practice at the bar must be of great im- 
portance in every nation ; and the more free that 
nation, the more important is it. It was highly so 
in Rome, and withal very peculiar. Cicero was 
the most illustrious example on record, of a pa- 
tronising lawyer. His views extended far beyond 
the litigation of property. The law was not merely 
the road to political distinction for a very few of 
the leading men as with us, while the practice of 
the great body is confined to private causes, and 
their ambition to gentlemanly maintenance or the 
accumulation of wealth. Cicero held himself out 
as the guardian of the lives and liberty, as well as 
the fortunes and estates of his countrymen. Those 
who have not looked with historical precision at 
the predominant influence and dignity of a Roman 
barrister in the state, will be apt to consider 
Cicero's notions of the perfection and universal 
accomplishment necessary to an Orator or Pleader 
of causes, as overcharged and extravagant ; as the 
rant of professional arrogance. But when we 



ON CICERO. c 255 

consider the importance and endless variety of the 
subjects they had to treat, the opposite character 
of the audiences before whom they were to treat 
them ; that their friends among the gentry were to 
be extricated from factious scrapes, whether as 
aggressors or as sinned against ; that the plebeians 
were to be supported under oppression ; that the 
Sicilians were to be avenged against a Verres ; that 
the kings of the earth were their clients, and the 
universe was suspended on their words ; that these 
debates were sometimes to be held before the 
majestic senate, sometimes before the acute and 
practised judges, and that at other times the people 
were to be courted or cajoled, encouraged or 
alarmed : when we thus take the character of the 
Roman advocate in all its bearings, we must ac- 
knowledge that his art included in it all learning 
and all science of a liberal kind ; that it required 
the sublime genius of a poet though not his me- 
chanical skill ; the gravity and depth of a historian ; 
the research of an antiquary ; the natural know- 
ledge in one branch, the metaphysical refinement 
in another branch of philosophy ; the wit and 
humour of the comic dramatist or the satirist ; in 
short, the cyclopaedia of human inventions, and 
the concentrated results of civilised society in all 
ages. 

Ac, veluti magno in populo cum saepe coorta est 

Seditio, ssevitque animis ignobile vulgus ; 

Jamque faces et saxa volant ; furor arma ministrat : 

Turn, pietate gravem ac meritis si forte virum quern 

Conspexere, silent ; arrectisque auribus adstant ; 

Iste regit dictis amnios, et pectora mulcet ; 

Sic cunctus pelagi cecidit fragor, sequora postquam 



256 ON CICERO., 

Prospiciens genitor, coeloque invectus aperto, 
Flectit equos, curruque volans dat lora secundo. 

Virg. JEn. i. 148. 

There is nothing perhaps in the history of the 
bar more honourable to it, than Cicero's advance- 
ment, and the character of the career which in- 
vested him with the robe of office, a robe which did 
more for his country than the sword against it. 

Cedant arma togae, concedat laurea linguae. 

His prudence and wise counsels delivered the 
laws and liberty, suspended by the public troubles, 
from the threatened danger. The honourable title of 
Pater Patrice, the founder and father of his country, 
was given to him after the defeat of Catiline's con- 
spiracy. He was the first who bore it, and the 
only person on whom it was conferred by Rome in 
its state of independence. 

Tantum igitur muros intra toga contulit illi 
Nominis et tituli, quantum non Leucade, quantum 
Thessalias campis Octavius abstulit udo 
Caedibus assiduis gladio. Sed Roma parentem, 
Roma patrem patriae Ciceronem libera dixit. 

Juvenal, sat. viii- 

The gown of Cicero and the sword of Augustus 
are here strongly contrasted : the promontory of 
Epirus called Leucate, where Octavius Csesar de- 
feated Antony and Cleopatra in a bloody sea-fight ; 
Philippi, the field of Brutus and Cassius's discom- 
fiture, are made to yield in splendour, though the 
scenes of victory, to the consular triumphs. The 



ON CICERO. 257 

title here recorded was afterwards given to Augus- 
tus, and to others of the emperors ; not for their 
deserts, but in the spirit of flattery.* Juvenal was 
a stern republican, and an uncompromising satirist. 
He hated Augustus, and meant to stigmatise Rome 
by the epithet libera, for allowing herself to be 
enslaved by him and his successors, not to compli- 
ment her on her temporary relief from the machina- 
tions of the conspirators. The uncontrollable indig- 
nation of the poet against his country, for giving up 
again that freedom which Cicero's glorious consul- 
ship had retrieved, is not softened by the clemency 
displayed on the emperor's part after he had attained 
the high object of his ambition. Modern eyes, look- 
ing with the impartiality of distance, see much in 
his subsequent conduct to atone for the waste of 
human blood in his earlier life : but we feel no 
consequences. Juvenal's free spirit smarted under 
the oppressions of his country ; and he wrote at a 
period to know by experience, that though the first 
tyrant of a dynasty often bears his faculties mildly 
and paternally, as we express it now-a-days, his suc- 
cessors, safe in their seats, nursed in the lap of lux- 
ury, too elevated and independent to stand upon 
personal character, strip from autocracy every 
rag of its fallacious plea, that it acts according to 
the simplicity and benevolence of the patriarchal 
system, and hovers with half-celestial influence 
over the peace and prosperity of its children. 
Juvenal writes under the lash, and he returns it. 
The following passage is so caustic, that though not 
immediately referring to Cicero, no apology will be 
necessary for inserting it :— 

* Antony erected a statue to Caesar in the rostra, and in- 
scribed it to the most worthy parent of his country. 

S 



258 ON CICERO. 

Nec tamen ipsi 
Ignoscas populo: populi frons durior hujus. 
Qui sedet, et spectat triscurria patriciorum : 
Planipedes audit Fabios, ridere potest qui 
Mamercorum alapas. Quanti sua funera vendant, 
Quid refert ? vendunt nullo cogente Nerone, 
Nec dubitant celsi Praetoris vendere ludis. 
Finge tamen gladios inde, atque hinc pulpita pone : 
Quid satius ? mortem sic quisquam exhorruit, ut sit 
Zelotypus Thymeles ; stupidi collega Corinthi ? 
Res haud mira tamen, citharoedo principe, mimus 
Nobilis : haec ultra, quid erit nisi ludus ? et illic 
Dedecus urbis habes : nec mirmillonis in armis, 
Nec clypeo Gracchum pugnantem, aut falce supina ? 
(Damnat enim tales habitus, sed damnat et odit,) 
Nec galea frontem abscondit : movet ecce tridentem 3 
Postquam librata pendentia retia dextra 
Nequicquam effudit, nudum ad spectacula vultum 
Erigit, et tota fugit agnoscendus arena. 
Credamus tunicse, de faucibus aurea cum se 
Porrigat, et longo jactetur spira galero. 
Ergo ignominiam graviorem pertulit omni 
Vulnere, cum Graccho jussus pugnare secutor. 
Libera si dentur populo suffragia, quis tarn 
Perditus, ut dubitet Senecam prseferre Neroni ? 
Cujus supplicio non debuit una parari 
Simia, nec serpens unus, nec culeus unus. 
Par Agamemnonidae crimen ; sed causa facit rem 
Dissimilem : quippe ille Deis auctoribus ultor 
Patris erat caesi media inter pocula : sed nec 
Electrae jugulo se polluit, aut Spartani 
Sanguine conjugii : nullis aconita propinquis 
Miscuit : in scena nunquam cantavit Orestes : 
Troica non scripsit. 

If Cicero was not more honest, he was at least 
better provided with worldly wisdom, than Cato. 
He thus describes that celebrated patriot in an epis- 
tle Ad Atticum, lib. h : — " Unus est, qui curet, con- 



ON CICERO. Q59. 

stantia magis et integritate, quam, ut mihi videtur, 
consilio, aut ingenio, Cato ; qui miseros publicanos 
quos habuit amantissimos sui, tertium jam mensem 
vexat, neque iis a senatu responsum dari patitur." 
On another occasion also, in the consulship of Q. 
Caecilius Metellus and L. Afranius, he complains of 
Cato's conduct, as entirely contrary to good policy 
in speaking against the petition of the Knights, and 
that with so resolute an opposition, unlike some of 
our senators who speak one way and vote another, 
that he procured its rejection. In the letter just 
quoted, Cicero is much discontented with the con- 
duct of his party ; and throws out melancholy anti- 
cipations of their ultimate failure : — »" Nam, ut ea 
breviter, quas post tuum discessum acta sunt, colli- 
gam, jam exclames necesse est, res Romanas diutius 
stare non posse. Sic ille annus duo firmamenta 
reipublicse, per me unum constituta, evertit : nam 
et senatus auctoritatem abjecit, et ordinum concor- 
diam disjunxit." In a lost poem on his own consul- 
ship, of which a very few fragments are extant, he 
thus makes Calliope speak to himself: — 

Interea cursus, quos prima a parte juventas, 
Quosque adeo consul virtute, animoque petisti, 
Hos retine, atque auge famam, laudemque bonorum. 

The opportunities which occurred to a man so ca- 
pable of availing himself of them as Cicero were ap- 
parently most favourable : and as far as he was per- 
sonally concerned, in living fame, and in posthumous 
renown to the latest ages, he accomplished every 
thing for himself that lie could wish. But the power 
of circumstances was too strong, to give permanent 
success to his efforts in behalf of his country. Lucan 
describes the crisis with oratorical force, as usual, 
rather than with poetical sublimity or imagination : - 

s 2 



S60 ON CICERO, 

Nec gentibus ullis 
Gommodat, in populum, terrae pelagique potentem 5 
Invidiam Fortuna snam. Tu causa malorum, 
Facta tribus dominis communis, Roma, nec unquam 
In turbam missi feralia foedera regni. i. 82. 

The disappointment which Cicero felt at the un- 
toward progress of affairs, and his gloomy forebod- 
ings of a fatal issue, gave a tone of invective to his 
public harangues, and a splenetic querulousness to 
his private correspondence. He employed the lei- 
sure of his occasional retirement in drawing up cer- 
tain anecdotes, as he terms them, comprehending 
a secret history of the times, which no one but 
Atticus was to peruse, in the style of Theopompus, 
who was the most satirical of all writers. He says 
that all his politics are reduced to one point, of 
hating bad citizens, and pleasing himself with 
writing against them. He considers himself as dri- 
ven from the helm, with no further object of curio- 
sity, than to see the wreck from the shore ; quoting 
the following passage from Sophocles : — 

Kcc) V7T0 s"syi 
YIvxv3l$ axoveiv ^sxudo$ su^ovctyj tygevl. 

The measures adopted respecting his house, were 
peculiarly calculated to gall a man, who had a 
gentlemanly pride in the elegance of his domestic 
arrangements, and wished to make his residence the 
temple of literature and the arts. He expresses 
himself bitterly on the subject: — " At quid tulit 
legum scriptor peritus et callidus ? Velitis, Jubeatis, 
ut M. Tullio Aqua et Igni Interdicatur ? Crudele, 
nefarium, ne in sceleratissimo quidem civi sine 
judicio ferundum. Quid ergo ? Ut Interdictum sit." 



ON CICERO. 261 

His colleague Piso was among the most invete- 
rate of his enemies. Envy was probably the real 
ground of this hostility ; but envy shelters itself 
under plausible allegations. He upbraided Cicero 
with that vanity which it must be acknowledged 
was too prominent a feature of his character. This, 
and not his merits, he affected to consider as the 
cause of his exile. He taunts him with the pro- 
voking sarcasm, that Pompey made him feel how 
superior was the power of the general to that of 
the orator. He reminded him also, how mean and 
ungenerous it was, to vent his spleen only on con- 
temptible objects, without daring to meddle with 
those who were more formidable, those against 
whom the expression of his resentment would have 
been more merited and more magnanimous. 

The circumstance least to be expected perhaps 
in the life of Cicero, is the brilliancy of his mili- 
tary career as a provincial governor. Cilicia was his 
province : but Cappadocia, Armenia, Isauria, Lyca- 
onia, Paphlagonia, and Pontus, in short nearly the 
whole country of Asia Minor, constituted the thea- 
tre of his glory, and the object of his care. From 
time to time he marched nearly over the modern 
Amasia, Genu, and Tokat. The Cappadocians 
were so enamoured of slavery, that when the Ro- 
mans offered them freedom, they declined it, and 
said they were not able to support liberty. Horace 
refers to their love of thraldom and their poverty : — 

Mancipiis locuples eget aeris Cappadocum rex. 

This poor king was placed under Cicero's espe- 
cial protection ; and his generosity to him formed 
a strong contrast to the peculating habits and ex- 

s3 



262 ON CICERO. 

tortion of other proconsuls. It gives a curious 
idea how poor these people were, that in the time 
of Lucullus, an ox was sold for four-pence, and a 
man was worth not more than four times as much. 
Yet there is no appearance, from the letters of Ci- 
cero or others who were in the country at the time, 
that they were unhappy. As long as they had a 
kind protector like Cicero against plots and rob- 
bery, the absence of the stimulus which makes 
riches thought to be necessary, produced the ef- 
fect of happiness in them more uniformly than does 
the possession of wealth in those who have pur- 
sued it with ardour : for the want of some little 
addition always poisons the enjoyment of the covet- 
ous or ambitious. In politics, they entertained no 
extensive designs, had no aspirations after liberty, 
and were as well disposed to be the cattle of the 
Romans as of any other people. 

At any other time, probably, Cicero would have 
been well pleased with his government and even 
its prolongation ; for he was winning golden opi- 
nions in it. But it was a vital object with him 
to return, to frustrate the intrigues respecting the 
two Gauls. Curio had become an engine of fac- 
tion : — 

Momentumque fuit, mutatus Curio, rerum, 
Gallorum captus spoliis, et Csesaris auro. 

Lucan. v. 819. 

The following lines of Virgil are supposed to ap- 
ply to the case of Curio, as having sold Rome to 
Caesar : — 

Vendidit hie auro patriam, dominumque potentem 
Imposuit, fixit leges pretio atque refixit. 



. ON CICERO. 2()3 

The African war held the whole empire in sus- 
pence. Scipio's name was thought ominous and 
invincible, on the theatre which had given a title 
to his ancestors. The attention of the public was 
rivetted on the scene of action, and they waited 
with anxious expectation for the decisive blow. 
Cicero had given up all hope of good from either 
side, and therefore chose to live retired and out of 
sight. Whether in the city or the country, he 
shut himself up with his books. They had hitherto 
been the diversion, but were now become the sup- 
port of his life. Whatever his country might have 
lost by his despondence, the modern world has 
gained infinitely. Study was now his principal 
solace. He entered into close friendship and cor- 
respondence with M. Terentius Varro ; and the 
letters which passed show the respect and affection 
to have been mutual. At Varro' s desire, they mutu- 
ally dedicated their learned works to each other, 
and both are immortalised. Cicero's Academic 
Questions are inscribed to Varro ; Varro's Trea- 
tise on the Latin Tongue to Cicero. 

During this interval of retirement, Cicero wrote 
his book on Oratorial Partitions. The subject is 
the art of ordering and distributing the parts of an 
oration, so as to adapt them in the best manner to 
their proper end, that of moving and persuading 
an audience. 

Another fruit of this secession from politics, was 
his dialogue on famous orators, called Brutus. 
In this he gives a short character of all who had 
ever flourished either in Greece or Rome, with 
any considerable reputation for eloquence, down to 
his own times. He generally touches on the princi- 
pal points of each individual's life ; so that it will 

s 4 



2()4 ON CICERO. 

be found to contain almost an epitome of the 
Roman history. The conference is supposed to 
be held with Brutus and Atticus in Cicero's garden 
at Rome, under the statue of Plato. This incident 
is peculiarly appropriate, because that Greek philo- 
sopher was the especial object of his admiration, 
and the model on which he generally formed his 
dialogues. In the present piece, his double title, 
Brutus ; or, Of Famous Orators, seems to be con- 
ceived in the spirit of imitation. The speaker gives 
the first title, the subject the second. The title 
of one of Plato's dialogues is, Pkcedon ; or, Of the 
Soul. This work was intended as a fourth, and 
supplemental book to the three, which he had be- 
fore published on the Complete Orator. 

Among the abuses produced by the confusion of 
the times, we should hardly have supposed did we 
not know it, that the computation of time would 
have been pressed into the service of faction. But 
the practice of intercalating was introduced most 
licentiously, till at length the months were transpo- 
sed out of their order and natural arrangement, and 
their denominations completely falsified. The win- 
ter was carried back into autumn, and the autumn 
into summer. Caesar determined to close the source 
of this disorder, by abolishing the use of intercal- 
ations. To this end he substituted the solar for the 
lunar year, and adjusted it to the exact measure of 
the sun's revolution in the zodiac, that is, to the 
period of time when it returns to the point whence 
it set out. The astronomers of that age supposed 
this to be three hundred and sixty-five days and 
six hours. To bring the year right from the ex- 
treme irregularity in which it had been going, and 
to start it clear and fresh for a more regular jour- 



ON CICERO. 265 

ney to future ages, was a work of difficulty and 
nice calculation. The object was effected by the 
skilful aid of Sosigenes, an eminent astronomer of 
Alexandria, whom Caesar had brought to Rome 
for that purpose. A new calendar was formed on 
his observations by Flavins, a scribe, and was di- 
gested according to the succession of the Roman 
festivals. The old manner of computing their days 
by Kalends, Ides, and Nones, had been proclaimed 
by the dictator's edict not long after his return 
from Africa, and was adopted in the order now 
published. The year between the two calen- 
dars was the longest Rome had ever known. 
It consisted of fifteen months, or four hundred 
and forty-five days, and by the accuracy of its 
computation put an end to the confusion. The 
Julian, or solar year, was introduced at the com- 
mencement of the ensuing January. It continues 
in use to this day in all Christian countries, with 
one intervening regulation of the style, submitted 
by Lord Macclesfield to the British Parliament in 
the middle of the last century. 

Cicero's own works would have furnished his 
history, had all the other books, in which his 
name is mentioned, perished. Dr. Middleton has 
made those works subservient to a luminous, as 
well as eloquent life of the illustrious Roman. Ci- 
cero frequently expatiates on the character of his 
own philosophy, and the practical effect of his opi- 
nions. Plato gave him courage to bear up against 
the disappointment of his political views. He had 
learned from that profound observer, that turns and 
revolutions must naturally be expected in states : 
that oligarchy, mob-government, and monarchy 
must each have their day. His own republic had 



266 ON CICERO. 

experienced these vicissitudes, and his own oc- 
cupation was gone. He betook himself to his 
studies, to relieve his mind from brooding over the 
public misfortunes, and to make himself useful to 
his country in the only mode left for him. His 
books supplied the place of his votes in the senate, 
and of his speeches to the people. He had re- 
course to philosophy, when political life no longer 
afforded scope for his exertions, nor the slightest 
prospect of success if he made them. 

Voluminous as are Cicero's works, much unfor- 
tunately is lost. Among the desiderata is a dialogue 
published during his retreat, and entitled Horten- 
sius in honour of his friend. In this he carried 
on the play of debate, which had often been con- 
tested so seriously, yet so liberally at the bar. The 
subject was learning and philosophy. He undertook 
their defence, and assigned to his illustrious com- 
petitor the task of arraigning them. A remarkable 
circumstance attended the reading of this book. 
St. Austin was first led by it to the study of the 
Christian philosophy. It is curious that the church 
of Christ should owe one of its most illustrious con- 
verts, and one of its most powerful champions to the 
instrumentality of a heathen scholar. 

About the same time, he composed another work 
on philosophy in four books : an account and de- 
fence of the Academy. It was his own sect ; and 
the reason he gives for adhering to it is, its being of 
all others the most elegant, the least arrogant, and 
the most consistent with itself He had before 
published a work on the same subject in two books, 
the one entitled Catulus, the other Lucullus. He 
did not however consider the argument as suited to 
the character of the speakers, who were not remark- 



ON CICERO. , 267 

able in that line of study. His intention was to 
change them to Cato and Brutus. Atticus gave 
him a hint, that Varro had signified a wish to find 
his name in some of his writings. He immediately 
therefore remodelled his plan, and extended it to 
four books. These he addressed to Varro, taking 
on himself the part of Philo, in defence of the Aca- 
demic principles, and giving that of Antiochus to 
Varro, who was to oppose and confute them. At- 
ticus was the moderator of the debate. 

Among the most valuable of his works, on a most 
important subject of philosophy, is a treatise pub- 
lished in the same year with his Academic Questions, 
in a dialogue De Finibu& Bonorum et Malorum : on 
the chief Good and 111 of Man. It is written after the 
manner of Aristotle. He explains with all the re- 
commendations of eloquence, and with the indis- 
pensable requisite of perspicuity on so difficult a 
question, the several opinions held by the ancient 
sects. He thus states his subject, and the superiority 
of its importance to the generality of those dis- 
cussed by great men, and listened to with profound 
attention : — " Quid est enim in vita tantopere quse- 
rendum, quam cum omnia in philosophia, turn id, 
quod his libris quaeritur, quid sit finis, quid extre- 
mum, quid ultimum, quo sint omnia bene vivendi, 
recteque faciendi consilia referenda ? quid sequatur 
natura, ut summum ex rebus expetendis ? quid 
fugiat, ut extremum malorum ? qua de re cum sit 
inter doctissimos magna dissensio, quis alienum pu- 
tet ejus esse dignitatis, quam mihi quisque tribuit, 
quod in omni munere vitse optimum et verissimum 
sit, exquirere ? An, partus ancillae sitne in fructu ha- 
bendus, disseretur inter principes civitatis, P. Scae- 
volam, M' Manilium ? ab hisque M. Brutus dissen- 



c 268 ON CICERO. 

tiet, (shall take the negative where they take the 
affirmative,) quod et acutum genus est, et ad usus 
civium non inutile : nosque* ea scripta, reliquaque 
ejusdem generis et legimus libenter, et legemus : 
haec, quae vitam continent omnem, negligentur? 
Nam, ut sint ilia vendibiliora, haec uberiora certe 
sunt." 

The work consists of five books. We have be- 
fore had occasion to notice, how both here and 
elsewhere, Cicero opens the Epicurean doctrine, 
and discusses it in detail. It is defended by 
Torquatus, and confuted by Cicero, in a conversa- 
tion held at his Cuman villa, in presence of Triari- 
us, a young man of distinction, brought on a visit 
by Torquatus. The five books give the supposed 
substance of three dialogues. The scene of the last, 
occupying the fifth book, is laid at Athens. Piso 
explains the opinions of the Old Academy*, or the 
Peripatetics, in presence of Cicero, his brother 
Quintus, his cousin Lucius, and Atticus. He ad- 
dresses the whole work to Brutus, in return for a 
dedication of the same kind on the part of Brutus, 
prefixed to his Treatise on Virtue. 

In a short time after the publication of this last 
work, he produced another of equal dignity, which 
he entitled Tusculan Disputations. This also con- 
sisted of five books, on as many different questions 
of philosophy, bearing the most strongly on the 
practice of life, and involving topics the most es- 
sential to human happiness. In the first book the 
question is put, " Sed quae sunt ea, quae dicis te 

* The Academics, by adopting the probable instead of the 
certain, preserved the balance between the two extremes, and 
were moderate in their opinions. Plutarch was one of them : 
his maxim was, MijSev &yav 



ON CICERO. 269 

majora moliri ?" The answer is, " Ut doceam, si 
possim, non modo malum non esse, sed bonum etiam 
esse mortem." He states the subject of the second 
book on temperate and rational grounds ; not with 
the extravagance of the Stoics: — "Nee tain quaeren- 
dum est, dolor malumne sit, quam firmandus ani- 
mus ad dolorem ferendum." With the same prac- 
tical good sense is the question of the third book 
set down, and the real ground of manly fortitude 
settled : — "Hsec igitur preemeditatio futurorum ma- 
lorum, lenit eorum adventum, quae venientia lon- 
ge ante videris." In the fourth book he complains 
that the philosophers treat moral subjects, and the 
means of attaining happiness, with more of scholas- 
tic subtlety and formal method, than of practical 
utility: — Quia Chrysippus, et Stoici, cum de animi 
perturbationibus disputant, magnam partem in his 
partiendis et defmiendis occupati sunt : ilia eorum 
perexigua oratio est, qua medeantur animis, nee 
eos turbulentos esse patiantur." This deficiency 
he endeavours to supply. In the opening of the 
fifth book, he thus addresses Brutus : — " Placere 
enim tibi admodum sensi, et ex eo libro, (De Virtu- 
te,) quern ad me accuratissime scripsisti, et ex multis 
sermonibus tuis, virtutem ad beate vivendum se ipsa 
esse contentam." To establish that proposition, is 
the final object of the discussion. 

It was Cicero's habit, during his intervals of 
leisure, to invite some of his friends into the coun- 
try. Not being much of a game-preserver, not 
knowing spring guns, setting no traps, and main- 
taining no warfare with poachers, he was reduced 
to the necessity of killing time by such conversation, 
as could not but involve the improvement of the 
mind, and the enlargement of the understanding, 



270 ON CICERO. 

It is not here meant to be insinuated, that the 
entertainment was wholly speculative ; or that he 
did not give very good dinners. But they were 
accompanied with what persons addicted to curious 
and uncommon quotation would call, " the feast of 
reason and the flow of soul :" nor did they at all 
resemble a dinner party, at which a friend of mine 
was present many years ago in the west of England. 
Had the thing happened last week, and in the east, 
nothing should have induced me to divulge it. The 
company consisted of squires and clergy. When the 
cloth was removed, one of the guests, no matter 
whether lay or clerical, produced a horse's hoof from 
his pocket, and laid it on the table with the dessert. 
This gave rise, as was intended, to an animated 
and scientific Tusculana Qucestio on farriery. 

The treatise in question recounts the diversions 
of five days, among a party of Cicero's friends at 
his Tusculan villa. Hence, the title of Tusculan 
Disputations. It is a point of considerable nicety, 
how far the different dialogues of this kind are to 
be ranked as mere fictions, for the purpose of com- 
municating a dramatic air and enlivening dry dis- 
cussion, or whether they be the literal records of 
a real debate ; or lastly, the heads of somewhat de- 
sultory conversations, expanded, methodised, co- 
loured by a more masterly hand, heightened by 
the ornaments of eloquence and the sublime of 
philosophy. That they were, on some occasions, 
far from literal, has been shown by the change of 
names for purposes of personal compliment. Were 
we to consider them as absolute romances, we 
should lose all the antiquarian interest derived 
from the machinery. Medio tutissimus ibis, as the 
recondite quoter would express himself. However 



ON CICERO. 271 

much or little of the actual words might have been 
spoken, we may suppose the parties mentioned, to 
have been carried down to the villa by the host : 
that the mornings were employed in declamation 
and rhetorical exercises. We have every reason 
to believe it a fact that Cicero had built a gallery 
there, called the Academy, for the purpose of philo- 
sophical conferences. Thither the company was in 
the habit of retiring in the afternoon ; and there 
he held a school after the manner of the Greeks, 
and invited his guests to call for any subject they 
might desire to hear explained. Whatever any of 
the party proposed, was made the argument of 
that day's debate. Either therefore Cicero, who 
w r as an adept on all philosophical subjects, and 
versed in the theories of all the schools, contented 
himself to write on any subject, in which his visi- 
tors might most wish to be instructed ; or they 
paid their host the compliment of calling for such 
subjects, as from any thing dropt in previous con- 
versation, they might suppose him most inclined 
to talk about, and ultimately to write upon. It 
matters not to us, which w T ay the selection arose ; 
this hypothesis is sufficient to give the vehicle of 
dialogue, so insipid where the occasion and the 
characters are entirely fictitious, a local habitation,) 
as our friend w r ould say, and names of historical 
interest. These conferences, on the present occa- 
sion five, he was in the habit of collecting into 
writing ; but as we do not know that there was 
any short-hand, and are sure there was no Bos well, 
it should seem as if Dr. Middleton had stated the 
thing too strongly, in saying that they were given 
" in the very words and manner* in which they 
really passed." 



27^ ON CICERO. 

Another of Cicero's celebrated discourses is that 
on Fate. It arose from a conversation with Hir- 
tius, at his villa near Puteoli, where they spent se- 
veral days together to enjoy the spring. He is 
supposed about the same time to have finished his 
translation of Plato's dialogue, entitled Timaeus, 
on the nature and origin of the universe. He was 
also employing himself on a work of a 'different 
kind, which had been long on his hands : a histo- 
ry of his own times ; which might have been more 
appropriately called an explanation and justifica- 
tion of his own conduct. It was full of free and 
severe reflections on Caesar and Crassus, and others 
who had abused their power to the oppression of 
the commonwealth. He gave it the modest deno- 
mination of Anecdotes. It was not to be published, 
as too hazardous -> but to be shown only to a few 
friends. It was written, as before observed, after 
the manner of the historian Theopompus, who 
indulged in the severity of a satirist, and the invec- 
tive of a misanthrope. 

He began his Book of Offices at his country- 
seat near Naples, designed, as he tells us, for the 
use and instruction of his son, that the time passed 
in an excursion of pleasure might not be entirely 
lost. He also composed there an oration, adapted 
to the circumstances of the time, and sent it to 
Atticus, to be suppressed or brought forward at 
his discretion ; besides which he engaged to finish, 
and send to his friend shortly, his secret history or 
anecdotes in the manner of Heraclides, to be care- 
fully concealed in his cabinet. 

He wrote a treatise also on the Nature of the 
Gods. In all these books an incautious reader is 
apt to be misled ; but an attentive one never can. 



ON CICERO. 2? 3 

The author sometimes takes upon himself the cha- 
racter of a Stoic ; sometimes that of an Epicurean ; 
or again, that of a Peripatetic. The object of this 
is to explain, with more semblance of authority, 
the different doctrines of each sect ; and besides 
that, to show by what arguments those who differ 
from himself can each confute the other. When 
he puts off this mask, and appears in his own per- 
son of an Academic, he disputes against them all 
collectively. Hence he has been accused of broach- 
ing contradictory sentiments, from the occasions 
not having been carefully noted when he has set 
up an argument only to knock it down. It must 
be distinctly understood, if we mean to assist our 
own powers of reasoning, or in any way to profit 
by this branch of his writings, that when he treats 
any subject professedly, or gives a judgment on it 
deliberately, either in his own person or in that of 
an Academic, he is to be held responsible for all 
opinions there brought forward. In scenes where 
he does not introduce himself, he generally lets us 
know to which of the interlocutors he consigns the 
maintenance of the party he in his own mind 
espouses : and that interlocutor is usually the prin- 
cipal speaker in the dialogue. Thus Crassus re- 
presents Cicero in the treatise De Oratore ; Scipio, 
in that De Republica ; Cato, in that De Senectute. 

He seems to have thought with Socrates, that a 
minute and curious attention to natural philosophy, 
so as to make it an ultimate object of scientific in- 
vestigation, is attended with little profit, and an 
inadequate employment further than as a relax- 
ation. 

On the great subject, the immortality of the 
soul, and its separate existence after death, in a 



274 ON CICERO. 

state of happiness or misery, he probably carried 
the belief of the doctrine as far as a person unen- 
lightened by revelation could push it. If he went 
no further than inference, and stopped at a point 
far short of what we consider as the proof, it was 
the misfortune of his age, not the fault of his mind. 
The opinion of the Stoics was, that the soul is a 
subtilised fiery substance, which survives the earthy 
particles of the body, and subsists for a long time 
after it : but that it was not capable of resisting 
the expected final destruction of all things by the 
rage of its own element. Cicero, on the contrary, 
treated it as an unmixed and indivisible essence. 
If it could not be separated by any external force, 
he argued that it could not perish. All its powers 
and faculties he considered, both in their nature 
and extent, as favourable to the supposition of im- 
mortality. The principle of voluntary self-origin- 
ating motion, memory, invention, wit, comprehen- 
sion ; — all these seemed to him incompatible with 
the inertness of matter. He laid much stress also 
on the thirst of immortality so ardent in the best 
and the most elevated minds : he felt the destiny 
of man to be indicated, not by the coarse pleasures 
of the multitude, but by the sublime aspirations of 
nature's noblest master-pieces. The doctrine of 
God, providence, and immortality, was the basis 
of Cicero's religion, on which, as a measure of 
prudence, he professed to raise the superstructure 
of the Roman Dii Minorum Gentium : but the 
heaven of his secret breast was not peopled with 
such inhabitants. His opinions and conduct on 
the subject of augury, on which Appius dedicated a 
treatise to him, are worthy of remark. He did 
not altogether agree with the notions either of his 



ON CICERO. 275 

dedicator or of Marcellus. His belief was, that 
augury might possibly be first instituted on a per- 
suasion of its divinity. The improvement of arts 
and learning in succeeding ages had exploded that 
opinion in all but the vulgar mind : but state-craft 
retained the establishment for the political purpose 
of influencing and overawing that vulgar mind ; 
and Cicero himself was glad to be an augur, at the 
risk of laughing in the faces of his colleagues. 

To return to his esoteric opinions. He consi- 
dered the system of the world, as exposed to the 
view of man, to be the promulgation of God's law, 
the sensible announcement of his will to mankind. 
Hence we may collect his being, nature, and attri- 
butes, and in some degree ascertain the principles 
and motives on which he acts. By observing what 
he has done, we may learn what we ought to do : 
by tracing the operations of divine reason, we may 
learn how to discipline our own. The imitation of 
God he makes to constitute the perfection of man. 
From the will of God manifested in his works, he 
derives the origin of ail duty and moral obligation. 
The fitness and relation of things displayed through- 
out all creation, constitute the prototype of our 
propriety, consistency, and rationality. God is the 
inventor, propounder, and enactor of his own law. 
Whosoever will not obey it, throws off his alle- 
giance, and renounces the nature of man. Though 
he escape the tortures of material punishment as 
commonly believed, Cicero thinks that conscience 
will be his severest tormentor. Nothing but the 
study of this law, he says, can teach us this im- 
portant lesson prescribed by the Pythian oracle, 
to know ourselves. He explains this pithy precept 

t 2 



276 ON CICERO. 

in detail ; and makes its fulfilment to consist in 
the knowledge of our own nature and rank in the 
general system ; the relation we bear to other 
things ; and the purposes for which we were sent 
into the world. When a man has carefully observed 
the heavens, the earth, the sea, and the things in 
them ; has scrutinised their origin, their apparent 
tendency, and their probable end ; has sepa- 
rated the divine and eternal from the perishable : 
when he has almost found his way into the divine 
presence, and feels himself an unconfined citizen 
of the world : with such enlarged prospects, then 
will he begin to know himself, and to despise what 
the vulgar esteem most glorious. On these prin- 
ciples as laid down in his writings did Cicero build 
his religion and morality. His treatise on Govern - 
ment and Laws illustrated, explained, and enlarged 
them. His Book of Offices made the scheme 
complete. 

The elder Pliny bears testimony to the merit of 
these works : — " Scito enim conferentem auctores 
me deprehendisse a juratissimis et proximis veteres 
transcriptos ad verbum, neque nominatos : non 
ilia Virgiliana virtu te, ut certarent ; non Cicero- 
niana simplicitate, qui in libros de Republica, 
< Platonis se Comitem' profitetur : in Consola- 
tione iiliae, * Crantorem, inquit, sequor :' item 
* Panaetium de Officiis :' quae volumina ejus edi- 
scenda, non modo in manibus quotidie habenda, 
nosti." 

The treatise De Republica, the greatest of these 
works, was lost, with the exception of a few frag- 
ments.* He had here given so full and fair a 

* Some further portions have been recently recovered. 



ON CICERO. 277 

transcript of his inward mind, that he tells Atticus, 
those six books are so many hostages given to his 
country for his good behaviour. Were he ever to 
go backward from his integrity, he could never 
again dare to open those volumes. 

Is it to be inferred, that these great discoveries 
of a heathen lessen the necessity of revelation ? 
Cicero is a standing proof of the direct contrary. 
St. Paul says that there is a law taught by nature, 
and written on the hearts of the Gentiles, to guide 
them through their self-regretted ignorance and 
darkness, till a more perfect revelation of the di- 
vine will should be vouchsafed. The scheme pro- 
fessed by Cicero was unquestionably the most per- 
fect ever divulged to the heathen world : the 
greatest effort of unassisted nature towards attain- 
ing the supreme good of which it is capable, and 
the proper end of created beings. 

Erasmus could not help exclaiming, that the 
mind from which such sublime truths proceeded, 
must have been under the influence of something 
more than natural suggestions. Yet these glorious 
sentiments were rather the visions of his hope, than 
the convictions of his reason. These were the 
ebullitions of his enthusiasm : other passages of his 
works furnish us with the misgivings of his melan- 
choly moments, the diffidence of his timid calcu- 
lations, the doubts which the Sceptic too success- 
fully proposed to the Academic. Insulated quot- 
ations will establish in the mind of a reader not 
thoroughly acquainted with his works, a disbelief 
in the immortality of the soul, a negative on a 
future state of rewards and punishments. 

In his political capacity he was invariably the 
friend of peace and liberty. He was constantly 

t S 



27$ ON CICERO. 

bent on smoothing down the violence of the con- 
flicting parties, and set his face against every new 
advance to the propagation of civil discord. He 
was so indefatigable in contriving and proposing 
projects of accommodation, that he incurred the 
nick-name of the Peace-maker. His leading max- 
im as a politician was, that as the end of a pilot is 
a prosperous voyage ; that of a physician, the health 
of his patient ; that of a general, victory ; —that of 
a statesman is, to make the people happy ; to esta- 
blish them in power, to enrich them, to advance 
their glory and secure their virtue. This he de- 
clares to be the best work a man can perform. 

But as this cannot be effected, without unanimity 
in a state, it was his uniform endeavour to blend 
the different orders into one mass of mutual con- 
fidence ; to balance the supremacy of the people 
by the authority of the senate ; to divide their 
functions between counsel and execution, between 
ultimate decision and previous influence. It hap- 
pened unfortunately, he was leagued with a party 
made up of unconnected shreds and patches. 
Brutus and Cassius were men of character like 
himself; high in principle, patriotic in purpose. 
But very different were those next in authority to 
them. Decimus Brutus and C. Trebonius had 
both been deeply pledged to Caesar's interests. 
They had been favoured, promoted, and confided in 
by him in all his wars. When Caesar first marched 
into Spain, he left Brutus to command the siege 
of Marseilles by sea, Trebonius by land. They ac- 
quitted themselves with bravery and military skill, 
and reduced that strong place to the necessity of a 
surrender at discretion. Their opportunities of 
thus signalising themselves were created by Caesar's 



ON CICERO. 2/9 

patronage : strong indeed must have been the 
patriotic impulse, if such it were, which should 
induce them to cut asunder all the ties of ' gratitude. 
The conduct of the party has been hallowed by 
its martyrdom ; but Cicero's correspondence gives 
us reason to believe, that had success given birth 
to the clash of interests and the recriminations of 
jealousy, much foul play and mean motive, treachery 
and avarice, dishonourable ambition and factious 
intrigue would have disfigured the history, and 
swelled with dirty anecdotes the scandalous chron- 
icles of the times. Cicero seemed to derive great 
hopes from Plancus ; but generally speaking, he 
despaired of the cause from the discordant elements 
of which it was composed. " Quae si ad tuum 
tempus perducitur, facilis gubernatio est : ut per- 
ducatur autem, magnae cum diiigentiaa est, turn 
etiam fortunse." The qualification was distrustful, 
and prophetic. The evocati, a body of veterans, 
invited again to the service after dismissal, on the 
footing of volunteers, and entitled to peculiar 
privileges, were brought down on Antony's side in 
the oreat conflict in w^hich Hirtius and Pansa lost 
their lives. The consul or the general who com- 
manded them reckoned much upon them. Such a 
band, with experience and military renown, return- 
ing in vigour to the war, with honourable distinction 
and the popularity of well-earned laurels, was a 
host which they of the adverse faction wanted. The 
gain of a victory produced no lasting benefit to the 
patriots ; the loss of a battle placed them on the 
brink of destruction. Their armies were destroyed ; 
their military chiefs fell in various ways, and Cicero 
was murdered for his Philippics. 

t 4 



280 ON CICERO. 

The length of this article leaves no room for 
entering at large into an examination of Cicero's 
speeches. The great orations are well known to 
every classical reader: but the shortest deserve 
attention. The ninth philippic, in answer to Ser- 
vilius, is not only eloquent, but shows Cicero in the 
light of a private friend, as well as a promoter of 
the public service. 

" Quod si cuiqam Justus honos habitus est in 
morte legato, in nullo justior, quam in Ser. Sulpicio, 
reperietur. . . . Sulpicius cum aliqua perveniendi 
ad M. Antonium spe profectus est, nulla revertendi. 
qui cum ita affectus esset, ut, si ad gravem vali- 
tudinem labor viae accessisset, sibi ipse diiflderet : 
non recusavit, quo minus vel extremo spiritu, si 
quam opem reipublicse ferre posset, experiretur. 
Itaque non ilium vis hiemis, non nives, non lon- 
gitudo itineris, non asperitas viarum, non morbus in- 
gravescens retardavit : cumque jam ad congressum 
colloquiumque ejus pervenisset, ad quern erat missus, 
in ipsa cura et ineditatione obeundi sui muneris ex- 

cessit e vita Ego autem, patres conscripti, 

sic interpretor sensisse majores nostros, ut causam 
mortis censuerint, non genus esse quaerendum. 
Etenim cui legatio ipsa morti fuisset, ejus monu- 
m en turn exstare voluerunt, ut in bellis periculosis 

obirent homines legationis munus audacius 

Nunc autem quis dubitat, quin ei vitam abs- 
tulerit ipsa legatio ? secum enim ille mortem ex- 
tulit: quam, si nobiscum remansisset sua cura, 
optimi filii, fidelissimaa conjugis diligentia, vitare 
potuisset. At ille, cum videret, si vestrse aucto- 
ritati non paruisset, dissimilem se futurum sui ; si 
paruisset. munus sibi illud pro republica susceptum, 



ON CICERO. £81 

vitae finem allaturum : maluit in maximo reipu- 
blicas discrimine mori, quam minus, quam potuisset, 
videri reipublicae profuisse. Multis illi in urbibus, 
qua iter faciebat, reficiendi se, et curandi potestas 
fuit. aderat et hospitum invitatio liberalis pro di- 
gnitate summi viri, et eorum hortatio, qui una 
erant missi, ad requiescendum, et vita? suae con- 
sulendum. At ille properans, festinans, mandata 
nostra conficere cupiens, in hac constantia, morbo 

adversante, perseveravit Quod si excusa- 

tionem Ser. Sulpicii, patres conscripti, legationis 
obeundae recordari volueritis, nulla dubitatio relin- 
quetur, quin honore mortui, quam vivo injuriam 
fecimus, sarciamus, Vos enim, patres conscripti, 
(grave dictu est, sed dicendum tarn en,) vos, in- 
quam, Ser. Sulpicium vita privastis : quern cum 
videretis re magis morbum, quam oratione, excu- 
santem, non vos quidem crudeles fuistis, (quid 
enim minus in hunc ordinem convenit?) sed, cum 
speraretis nihil esse, quod non illius auctoritate et 
sapientia effici posset, vehementius excusationi 
obstitistis : atque eum, qui semper vestrum con. 
sensum gravissimum judicavisset, de sententia 
dejecistis. Ut vero Pansae consulis accessit co- 
hortatio gravior, quam aures Ser. Sulpicii ferre 
didicissent, turn vero denique filium, meque seduxit, 
atque ita locutus est, ut auctoritatem vestram vitas 
suae se diceret anteferre. cujus nos virtutem admi- 
rati, non ausi sumus ejus adversari voluntati. mo- 
vebatur singulari pietate filius : non multum ejus 
perturbationi meus dolor concedebat : sed uterque 
nostrum cedere cogebatur magnitudini animi, ora- 
tionisque gravitati : cum quidem ille, maxima 
laude et gratulatione omnium vestrum, pollicitus 



°2S°2 ON CICERO. 

est, se, quod velletis, esse facturum, neque ejus 
sententiae periculum vitaturum, cujus ipse auctor 
fuisset : quern exsequi mandata vestra properantem, 
mane postridie prosecuti sumus. . . Reddite igitur, 
patres conscripti, ei vitam, cui ademistis. vita 
enim mortuorum in memoria vivorum est posita. 
perficite, ut is, quern vos ad mortem inscii misistis, 
immortalitatem habeat a vobis. cui si statuam in 
Rostris decreto vestro statueritis, nulla ejus lega- 
tionem posteritatis inobscurabit oblivio." 

With respect to his virtues, talents and general 
character, he says, " Nam reliqua Ser. Sulpicii vita 
multis erit praeclarisque monumentis ad omnem 

memoriam commendata haec enim statua, 

mortis honestse testis erit : ilia, memoria vitae glo- 
riosae : ut hoc magis monumentum grati senatus, 
quam clari viri, futurum sit." He ends by pro- 
posing a decree, " Sulpicio statuam pedestrem 
seneam in Rostris ex hujus ordinis sententia statui, 
circumque earn statuam locum gladiatoribus liberos 
posterosque ejus quoquo versus pedes quinque 
habere, eamque causam in basi inscribi : Pansa, 
Hirtius, consules, alter, ambove, si eis videatur, 
quaestoribus urbanis imperent, ut earn basim sta- 
tuamque faciendam et in Rostris statuendam lo- 
cent : quantique locaverint, tantam pecuniam red- 
emtori attribuendam solvendamque curent : cum- 
que antea senatus auctoritatem suam in virorum 
fortium funeribus ornamentisque ostenderit ; pla- 
cere, eum quam amplissime supremo die suo efferri. 
.... utique locum sepulcro in campo Esquilino 
C. Pansa consul, seu quo alio in loco videatur, 
pedes triginta quoquo versus adsignet, quo Ser. 
Sulpicius inferatur. quod sepulcrum, ipsius, libe- 
rorum, posterorumque ejus sit, uti quod optimo 



ON CICERO. 283 

jure sepulcrum publice datum est." The senate 
agreed to this proposal ; and the statue itself, as 
we are told by Pomponius, De Orig. Jur., remained 
to his time in the Rostra of Augustus. 

This is a fair specimen of Cicero's eloquence of 
the middle kind, and the whole proceedings about 
the statues and the decrees, are full of antiquarian 
information with respect to manners, and curious 
illustration. 

Cicero's correspondence is one of the most va- 
luable legacies bequeathed to us by antiquity. The 
collection addressed to his friends and received 
from them, is full of political intelligence, and lets 
us more behind the scenes than all the other 
writings of the period put together. The letters 
to Atticus partake fully of that recommendation, 
besides which, they portray the writer's mind in 
its undress : for he there opens his heart in all the 
frankness of familiar intercourse and unlimited 
confidence. The strong attachment, the sorrow at 
parting, the desire of meeting, appear equally and 
with amiable fervour in both. Political confidence 
is followed up by unreserved communication of 
literary projects. Cicero says in one of his letters, 
" That part of yours pleases me, where you com- 
fort yourself with the hope of our speedily meeting 
again. The same expectation chiefly supports me. 
I will write to you regularly, and by every possible 
opportunity ; and will give you an account of every 
thing relating to Brutus. I will also send you 
shortly my Treatise on Glory ; and finish for you 
the other work, to be locked up with your treasure." 
This last announcement of course refers to the 
invectives mentioned before. 



284 ON CICERO. 

On the whole, great as is his fame, there is no 
character which has met with harder treatment 
than that of Cicero. His besetting sin was vanity : 
and it has raised up, both among his contempo- 
raries and with posterity, a hue and cry against 
him which so venial a failing seldom encounters. 
With many drawbacks from the general infirmity 
of human nature, obliged to do many things from 
the extreme difficulty, danger, and perplexity of 
the times, which calm judgment and good feeling 
would have avoided, Cicero was one of the best as 
well as the greatest men of a crisis, when good- 
ness was not thought necessary to greatness, and 
was more uncommon than it. If we wish to see the 
greatest lawyer that ever lived, we must look at 
Cicero in the Forum : if the most prompt and the 
bravest of chief magistrates in times of imminent 
danger, we must note Cicero in his consulship, 
and study well the conspiracy of Catiline : would 
we know who was the most just and the deepest 
thinker, most nearly approximating to the philo- 
sophy of Christianity, in the Gentile world, we 
must read Cicero's opinions on the immortality 
of the soul, and on a future state. 



28,5 



ON SENECA 



At Agrippina, ne malis tantum facinoribus notesceret, ve- 
niam exsilii pro Annaeo Seneca, simul Praeturam impetrat, 
laetum in publicum rata, ob claritudinem studiorum ejus, utque 
Domitii pueritia tali magistro adolesceret, et consiliis ejusdem 
ad spem dominationis uteretur : quia Seneca fidus in Agrip- 
pinam, memoria beneficii, et infensus Claudio, dolore injuriae, 
credebatur.— Cornel. Tacit. Annal. lib. xii. cap. 8. 



The family of the Senecas was Spanish. Spain 
was also proud of counting in those days, her 
Lucan, Quintilian, Silius, and Martial. The latter 
poet mentions the principal places in the pro- 
vinces, w T hence eminent writers have come : — 

Apollodoro plaudit imbrifer Nilus ; 

Nasone Peligni sonant : 
Duosque Senecas, unicumque Lucanum 

Facunda loquitur Corduba. 

Lib. i. epig. 62. 

He mentions in the same epigram Verona, the 
second Venetian city, as the birthplace of Catullus, 
and Padua as that of Livy. He speaks of Seneca 
again : — 

Atria Pisonum stabant cum stemmate toto, 
Et docti Senecse ter numeranda domus. 

Lib. iv. epig. 42. 



286 ON SENECA. 

Lucius Seneca, born at Corduba, now Cordova, 
was the son of Marcus the orator, and uncle to the 
poet Lucan. He was himself an orator, a philo- 
sopher, a historian, and a poet, on the presumption 
that the tragedies were written by him, which how- 
ever has been doubted, as it has been supposed 
that there was a third Seneca. But as they passed 
under his name we shall consider them as his.* 

There is no name in antiquity, respecting which 
more difference of opinion has prevailed, both in 
a personal and literary point of view. It must be 
confessed that he did not set out very well in life. 
The passage at the head of this article, informs us, 
that he was appointed tutor to Nero by Agrippina, 
who recalled him from banishment. His first no- 
torious exploit, for which he was driven into that 
banishment, was corrupting Julia the daughter of 
Germanicus.t Lord Bolingbroke did not philoso- 
phise more vain-gloriously on magnanimity and 
patience, than this Stoical seducer on so honour- 
able an occasion of his exile. He flattered Clau- 
dius, and still more grossly his favourite Polybius, to 
obtain the repeal of his sentence. When he had 
succeeded, he forgot the latter, and betrayed the 
former. But it is after his return that it is worth 
our while to trace him. His great abilities in- 
troduced him to the joint tutorship with Burrus. 
The latter was his instructor in military science, 
and endeavoured to communicate his own se- 

* Seneca the philosopher had two brothers : Annaeus Mela, 
the father of Lucan ; and Annaeus Novatus, who was afterwards 
adopted by Gallio, and took that name. The death of Mela is 
mentioned in the Annals of Tacitus. 

\ Claudius banished him for this alleged intrigue to the 
island of Corsica, A. U. C. 794. 



ON SENECA. 287 

dateness and gravity of manners. Elegant ac- 
complishment, taste for the arts, and polite ad- 
dress were Seneca's province. Among other tuto- 
rial employment, he composed Nero's speeches. 
The first, a funeral oration for Claudius, was un- 
fortunate in its effect, according to Tacitus: — "Post- 
quam ad providentiam sapientiamqae flexit, nemo 
risui temperare, quamquam oratio, a Seneca com- 
posita, multum cultus praeferret : ut fuit illi viro 
ingenium amcenum, et temporis ejus auribus adcom- 
modatum." — Lib. xiii. cap. 3. 

Nero's next harangue, probably also written by 
Seneca, though Tacitus does not say so, gave uni- 
versal satisfaction. It was delivered on his first 
appearance in the senate, and promised a reign of 
moderation. Seneca, we may suppose, seized the 
opportunity, in putting a popular inauguration 
speech into the young prince's mouth, to impress 
his mind also with a lesson on the true arts of go- 
vernment. Dio says that this address was ordered 
to be engraven on a pillar of solid silver, and to 
be publicly read every year when the consuls en- 
tered on their office. 

Seneca soon obtained an exclusive influence over 
his pupil, and engaged Annseus Serenus, who stood 
high in his esteem and friendship, to assist him in 
the means, not very creditable, of preserving his 
ascendency, by supplying Nero with a mistress, 
and persecuting his patroness Agrippina, whose 
indignation rose far above high-water mark. Taci- 
tus put into her mouth a few emphatic words, said 
to be uttered in the emperor's hearing. They have 
been finely imitated and expanded by Racine, in 
his tragedy of Britannicus ; and Gray, in his short 
fragment of Agrippina, has done little more than 



288 ON SENECA. 

translate Racine : how closely and how well, the 
passage from the French poet will show : — 

Pallas n'emporte pas tout Pappui d'Agrippine : 

Le ciel m'en laisse assez pour venger ma mine. 

Le fils de Claudius commence a ressentir 

Des crimes dont je n'ai que le seul repentir. 

J'irai, n'en doutez point, le montrer a l'armee ; 

Plaindre, aux yeux des soldats, son enfance opprimee ; 

Leur faire, a mon exemple, espier leur erreur. 

On verra d'un cote le fils d'un empereur 

Redemandant la foi juree a sa famille, 

Et de Germanicus on entendra la fille. 

De l'autre, Ton verra le fils d'CEnobarbus, 

Appuye de Seneque et du tribun Burrhus, 

Qui, tous deux de l'exil rappele's par moi-meme, 

Partagent a mes yeux l'autorite supreme. 

De nos crimes communs je veux qu'on soit instruit ; 

On saura les chemins par ou je l'ai conduit. 

Pour rendre sa puissance et la votre odieuses, 

J'avourai les rumeurs les plus injurieuses ; 

Je confesserai tout, exils, assassinats, 

Poison meme. 

Agrippina regained a temporary influence, and 
succeeded in punishing some of her accusers, and 
rewarding her friends. Among the promotions 
obtained by her, was that of Balbillus to the pro- 
vince of Egypt, It seems strange, that a person 
so highly spoken of by Seneca, should have been 
patronised by Agrippina at this juncture. "Bal- 
billus virorum optimus, in omni litterarum genere 
rarissimus, auctor est, cum ipse praefectus obtineret 
iEgyptum, Heracleotio ostio Nili, quod est maxi- 
mum, spectaculo sibi fuisse delphinorum a mari 
occurrentium, et crocodilorum a flumine adversum 
agmen agentium, velut pro partibus prgelium/' 
— Anncei Seneca? Natural. Qiwest. lib. iv. 



ON SENECA. 289 

It was not till Suilius had too justly upbraided, but 
at the same time coarsely reviled Seneca, that the lat- 
ter incurred any large portion of popular censure. 
Among the grounds on which Suilius attacked him, 
were those of usury, avarice, and rapacity. That 
he was avaricious is beyond all question ; but his 
practices must have been exorbitant to justify so 
violent an invective as that recorded by Tacitus : — 
" An gravius existimandum, sponte litigatoris prae- 
mium honestae operas adsequi, quam conrumpere 
cubicula Principum feminarum ? Qua sapientia, 
quibus philosop riorum praeceptis, intra quadrien- 
nium Regiae amicitias, ter millies sestertium para- 
visset ? Romae testamenta et orbos v«lut indagine 
ejus capi. Italiam et provincias inmenso fenore 
hauriri." — Annal. lib. xiii. cap. 42. 

The only historical authority on which Seneca's 
memory is loaded with this strong charge of usury, 
is that of Dio, who says that the philosopher had 
placed very large sums out at interest in Britain, 
and that his vexations and unrelenting demands of 
payment had been the cause of insurrections among 
the Britons. But Dio's veracity has been suspected 
on some occasions ; and as for the colour given to 
the imputation by the passage quoted from Taci- 
tus, it must be remembered that it occurs as pro- 
ceeding from the mouth of an enraged enemy. 
These imputed faults could scarcely escape a hint 
from Juvenal, although he had made use of him 
before as a contrast to Nero, and seems generally 
favourable to his character : — 

Temporibus diris igitur, jussuque Neronis, 
Longinum, et magnos Senecse praedivitis hortos 
Clausit, et egregias Lateranorum obsidet aedes 
Tota cohors : rams venit in ccenacula miles. Sat 10. 

u 



290 ON SENECA. 

Seneca's share in the death inflicted on Agrip- 
pina by her son, and a strong suspicion that he 
drew up the palliative account of it, bear still 
harder on his fame. The savage mode of the as- 
sassination, and the meanness of the posthumous 
honours paid to her, a circumstance of infinitely 
more importance than modern ideas attach to it, 
as affecting the future happiness and condition of 
the departed spirit, reflect indelible disgrace on all 
concerned, The murder took place in the neigh- 
bourhood of Baise. Seneca, in his epistles, de- 
scribes the villas of Marius, Pompey, and Csesar, 
as built on the ridges of the neighbouring hills : — 
" Adspice quam position em elegerunt, quibus sedi- 
ficia excitaverunt locis, et qualia : scias non villas 
esse, sed castra." — Ep. 51. 

An humble monument was erected by her do- 
mestics in this sequestered spot, difficult of access, 
that the busy world might have nothing to remind 
it of the parricide. In a plausible letter addressed 
to Nero by the senate, in which the public saw the 
hand of Seneca, allusion is made to that politic in- 
terference on the part of the adroit preceptor, which, 
under the show of suggesting filial piety, prevent- 
ed the attempt of the mother to share the tribunal 
with her son, at the audience of the Armenian 
ambassadors. 

Retribution soon overtook these unworthy com- 
pliances with the will of a wicked master. Nero, 
to whom, in the usual descent from bad to worse, 
the slightest infusion of virtue was an offence, 
listened to evil counsellors, and with complacency 
allowed the most respectable of his adherents to be 
traduced. Tacitus says, " Hi variis criminationi- 
bus Senecam adoriuntur, tanquam ingentes et pri- 
vatum supra modum evectas opes adhuc augeret, 



ON' SENECA, C 2Q1 

quodque studia civium in se verteret, hortorum 
quoque amcenitate et villarum magnificentia quasi 
Principem supergrederetur. Objiciebant etiam, elo- 
quentise laudem uni sibi adsciscere, et carmina 
crebrius factitare, postquam Neroni amor eorum 
venisset. Nam oblectamentis Frincipis palam in- 
iquum, detrectare vim ejus equos regentis ; inludere 
voces, quoties caneret. Quern ad finem nihil in 
Rep. clarumfore, quod non abillo reperiri credatur." 
— Lib. 14. The tragedies are here alluded to, which 
were ascribed to him when they could do him 
mischief. The flattery of Nero was here adroitly 
mixed up with malice against his devoted friend. 

There is too much reason to believe that his nu- 
merous villas, his extensive gardens, and great 
riches whetted the edge of these accusations, No- 
mentanum was one of his country residences, from 
which he dates a letter : — " Ex Nomentano meo 
te saluto, et jubeo te habere mentem bonam, hoc est, 
propitios deos omnes : quos habet placatos et fa- 
ventes, quisquis sibi se propitiavit."— Ep. 110.* 

His speech to the emperor, in which he offers to 
resign all his wealth and power, and asks permis- 
sion to retire, is a fine specimen of apologetic elo- 
quence. His admissions confirm Dio's account 
of his immoderate riches ; but the historian pro- 
bably exaggerates, when he imputes the insurrec- 
tion in Britain to his exactions. From this time he 
avoided the court, and lived an abstemious life in 
constant danger. His works however show that he 
was more useful in retirement, than while filling 
high offices. He devoted himself to philosophy, 
natural and moral. Among other things, we owe to 



* In Nomentanum meum fugi, quid putas ? urbem, imo fe- 
brem et quidem surrepentem. — Ep. 304. 

U C Z 



292 ON SENECA. 

him an account of the earthquake at Pompeii, which 
happened in his time : but he places it a year later 
than other authorities. The town was finally over- 
whelmed by an eruption of MountVesuvius, A.U.C. 
832. Its modern name is Torre deW Annunciata. 

Nero now sought his destruction ; and Piso's 
conspiracy, to which he was supposed to be a par- 
ty, gave the opportunity. Tacitus has the follow- 
ing passage : — " Fama fuit, Subrium Flavium cum 
centurionibus occulto consilio, neque tamen igno- 
rante Seneca, destinavisse, ut, post occisum opera 
Pisonis Neronem, Piso quoque interficeretur, tra- 
dereturque Imperium Senecaa, quasi insontibus 
claritudine virtutum ad summum fastigium delecto. 
Quin et verba Flavii vulgabantur : non referre 
dedecori, si citharcedus demoveretur et tragcedus 
succederet : quia, ut Nero cithara, ita Piso tragico 
ornatu canebat."- — AnnaL lib. xv. 

His death took place in the following manner : — 
Sylvanus the tribune, by order of Nero, surrounded 
Seneca's magnificent villa near Rome, with a troop 
of soldiers^ and then sent in a centurion to acquaint 
him with the emperor's orders, that he should put 
himself to death. On the receipt of this command, 
he opened the veins of his arms and legs, then was 
put into a hot bath : this was found ineffectual, and 
he drank poison : the poison was swallowed in vain, 
and he was suffocated with the steam of a hot bath. 
The poison he swallowed was cicuta. He called for 
that particular poison, which was given to criminals 
at Athens. This shows that philosophical ostentation 
adhered to him in the agonies of death : for he had 
thus expressed himself in one of his letters : — 
" Cicuta magnum Socratem fecit : Catoni gladium 
assertorem libertatis extorque, magnam partem de- 
traxeris gloriae." — Ep. 13. 



ON SENECA. 293 

Seneca's wife was permitted to live. But on 
this catastrophe Juvenal asks, in a passage quoted 
on a former occasion, if the people were allowed 
to give their votes freely, who is so lost to all sense 
of virtue, who so abandoned, as even to doubt 
whether he should prefer Seneca to Nero ? For 
Nero's many parricides, more than one death is 
deserved. By the Roman law, a parricide was 
sewn up in a sack, with a cock, a serpent, an ape, 
and a dog, and thrown into the sea. 

Other ancient authors, as well as Juvenal, who 
was a diligent reader of Seneca's works, have been 
lavish of his praises. Martial takes many occa- 
sions of mentioning him with some commendatory 
epithet : — 

Facundi Senecae potens amicus, 

Caro proximus aut prior Sereno, 

Hie est Maximus ille, quern frequenti 

Felix litera pagina salutat. 

Hunc tu per Siculas secutus undas, 

O nullis, Ovidi, tacende Unguis, 

Sprevisti domini furentis iras. • Lib. vii. ep. 45. 

But this is on the ground of eloquence. Why 
did St. Jerome saint him ? The reason is thus ex- 
plained by Dr. Ireland, in a communication to 
Mr. Gifford while translating Juvenal : — " The 
writer to whom you refer seems to have used the 
term without much consideration. In Jerome's 
time, it was applied to Christians at large, as a 
general distinction from the Pagans. Indeed it 
was given to those who had not yet received bap- 
tism, but who looked forward to it, and were 
therefore called candidates of the faith. It could 
be only a charitable extension of this term which 

u 3 



C 2[H ON SENECA. 

led Jerome to place Seneca among the sancti ; for 
he still calls him a Stoic philosopher. The case is, 
that in the time of Jerome certain letters were ex- 
tant, which were said to have passed between Se- 
neca and St. Paul. In one of these, the former 
had expressed a wish, that he were to the Romans 
what Paul was to the Christians. This Jerome 
seems to have interpreted as an evangelical senti- 
ment. He therefore placed Seneca among the 
ecclesiastical writers, and saints ; — in other words, 
he presumptively styled him a Christian, though 
not born of Christian parents.'* 

The sketch of Seneca's life here given, when 
checked by the authorities, will not warrant his 
being ranked in any respect with the first Christian 
worthies. His early life was confessedly irregular 
and licentious. This, if sincerely repented of, 
might be forgiven. But his conduct, after his 
recall, making allowance for the calumny and 
wholesale libel of the times, was, to speak of it in 
measured and negative terms, not altogether com- 
mendable. That his philosophical professions had 
some occasional influence with his imperial pupil, 
that they did a little towards stemming the torrent 
of profligacy with the people for a time, we are 
willing and desirous to concede: but that the 
practice of the preacher too frequently counter- 
acted the tendency of his preaching, it would 
be uncandid to deny. Of the later political delin- 
quencies charged against him, he was unquestion- 
ably innocent. With respect to Piso's conspiracy, 
it was the current report at Rome that the con- 
spirators, after having employed Piso to get rid of 
Nero, meant to destroy Piso himself and raise 



ON SENECA. 295 

Seneca to the vacant throne ; but the conception of 
such a scheme could have been nothing short of 
madness. Seneca was at the time old and infirm ; 
and his tamperings in conduct with the virtue he 
rigidly taught, and with the self-denial he Stoically 
enforced in his writings as what the wise man could 
undeniably exemplify, had rendered him too un- 
popular to make the tenure of the empire safe in 
his hands for the shortest period of time. In re- 
spect of this charge he was shamefully treated. 
But his personal biography, on the whole, has an 
unfortunate tendency. Whatever may be thought 
of his excellencies or defects as a writer, or of the 
caricature and priggishness of the Stoic sect, he 
was in his writings an earnest, a highly pretending, 
and apparently a sincere advocate of ascetic severi- 
ty. When the professions of such persons are belied 
by their lives and conduct, the interests of severity 
cannot fail to suffer. If his ministry was corrupt, 
his behaviour under Nero's frown was not mag- 
nanimous. It is true, he did not abandon his 
literary pursuits : but his resignation was lip-deep; 
and his exaggerated affectation of sickness and 
infirmity, his anxiety about diet and fear of poison, 
show that his fine reasonings and great calmness 
when doomed to die, his excellent discourses and 
ostentation of firmness, had more of theatrical ex- 
hibition than of natural and self-possessed reality. 
His character and his love of Stoical paradox are 
admirably delineated by Massinger, who had consi- 
dered him well ; and though the quaintness and 
studied point of his manner had rendered him almost 
indiscriminately acceptable to the readers and writ- 
ers of that period, the shrewd old dramatist had 

u 4 



296 ON SENECA. 

thoroughly appreciated him where he was weak as 
well as where he was strong. The passage is in 
the Maid of Honour : — 

Thus Seneca, when he wrote it, thought. — But then 

Felicity courted him ; his wealth exceeding 

A private man's ; happy in the embraces 

Of his chaste wife Paulina ; his house full 

Of children, clients, servants, flattering friends, 

Soothing his lip-positions ; and created 

Prince of the senate, by the general voice, 

At his new pupil's suffrage : then, no doubt, 

He held, and did believe, this. But no sooner 

The prince's frowns and jealousies had thrown him 

Out of security's lap, and a centurion 

Had offer'd him what choice of death he pleased, 

But told him, die he must ; when straight the armour 

Of his so boasted fortitude fell off, 

[throws away the booh. 
Complaining of his frailty. 

It remains that we consider Seneca as a philo- 
sopher and as an author. He was the principal 
ornament of Stoicism in his day, and a valuable 
instructor of mankind. If, when commanded to 
die, neither he nor his nephew Lucan maintained 
to the utmost the dignity of philosophy, the infir- 
mity of human nature may be pleaded as the ex- 
cuse. Some little vanity may appear on the scene 
of Seneca's dissolution ; but there was nothing 
cowardly, and nothing inconsistent, m As a writer, 
he was exactly made of that stuff which invites to 
controversy. To say that his style was faulty, is 
to say no more than that he lived after the Au- 
gustan age. But perhaps our admiration of pure 
style, and our desire, by constant contemplation, to 



ON SENECA. 297 

impregnate our own with the same spirit, makes us 
too exclusive. We shall lose much that is instruct- 
ive and valuable, if we determine to read nothing 
which is not perfectly written. Tacitus and Ju- 
venal, as well as Seneca and Lucan, are beyond 
the pale of best Latinity. Yet who would relin- 
quish the possession of either ? 

My friend Mr. Hodgson thinks thatQuinctilian's 
character of Seneca is nothing short of absolute con- 
demnation. He asks why he should have been so 
scrupulous in omitting Seneca's name, while he 
examined every different style of eloquence, if he 
intended to attack him at the close of his discus- 
sion ? I think the spirited and poetical annotator 
of Juvenal right in his estimate of Seneca to a 
certain extent : but surely he bears a little hard 
on Quinctilian, as he avers that the great critic 
does on his client. In the following passage, which 
he might possibly have had in his eye, the subject 
is of minute verbal criticism, and Cicero and Sal- 
lust as well as Seneca are brought under his cen- 
sure : — " Nostri autem, in jungendo aut derivando 
paullum aliquid ausi, vix in hoc satis recipiuntur. 
Nam memini juvenis admodum inter Pomponium 
et Senecam etiam prsefationibus esse tractatum, an 
gradus eliminate apud Accium in Tragcedia, dici 
oportuisset. At veteres ne expectorat quidem ti- 
muerunt." — Quinctilianus, lib. viii. cap. 3. 

Quinctilian again puts him in good company in 
the following passage on interrogations: — " Inter- 
rogans us etiam, quod negari non possit : Diocitne 
tandem caussam C. Fidiculanius Falcula ? Aut ubi 
respondendi difficilis est ratio, ut vulgo uti solemus, 
Quo modo ? qui Jieri potest ? Aut invidiam gratia, 



298 ON SENECA. 

ut Medea apud Senecam, Quas peti terras jubes ? 
Aut miserationis, ut Sinon apud Virgilium, 

Heu quce me tellus, inquit, quce me cequora possunt 
Accipere P 

Aut instandi, et auferendse dissimulations : ut 
Asinius, Audisne ? juriosum, inquam, non inqffi- 
ciosum testamentum reprehendimus ." — Lib. ix. 
cap. 2. 

Surely the following is neither absolute con- 
demnation nor faint praise : — " Cujus et multae 
alioqui, et magnse virtutes fuerunt : ingenium fa- 
cile et copiosum, plurimum studii, multarum rerum 
cognitio : in qua tamen aliquando ab iis, quibus in- 
quirenda quaedam mandabat, deceptus est. Tracta- 
vit etiam omnem fere studiorum materiam. Nam 
et orationes ejus, et poemata, et epistolae, et dialogi 
feruntur." — Lib. x. cap. 1. 

Suetonius, in his Caligula, gives the contra- 
dictory opinions of the emperor and of the public, 
rather than his own : — " Peroraturus, stricturum se 
lucubrationis telum, minabatur : lenius comtiusque 
scribendi genus adeo contemnens, ut Senecam, turn 
maxime placentem, commissiones meras componere, 
et, arenam esse sine calce, diceret." 

The opinion of Aulus Gellius is unfavourable : 
but his verdict is comparatively of little importance, 
though the anecdotes in his miscellany pleasantly 
fill up many a hiatus in the small talk of classical 
literature. Having already alluded to the repre- 
sentations of Dio, I shall adduce a specimen of the 
manner in which he has drawn Seneca's character : 

— — Toil; rs / urge<r£el<xis e^gvi^txTi^s, xu) e7Ti$-okol$ xa) §f)[j,ois xa) 
ap^ova't xa) fia.<ri\euo-iv sTrsg-eWsv cbg 8e sn} woXv tout eylvero, 
idvcr^Bgoavev h, ts ^svsxu$ xoci 6 Bouppog, tpgovipooTctrol ts a\hOL 



ON SENECA. 299 

xsti IvvetlwTotloi twv Greg) tov Negccvct ovleg* 6 ph, e-nctgyog tov 
dopvtpogixov, b Sf, Z&cto~xct\og aurov cov* xcti eTtctvvctv to yivopevov, 
TOiSicrds ct^og^g Aa^o^evoj* •vrgeo-Gelag ' Agpevloov e\Qovo~Y)g } xcti r) 
'AyglnTriVct e%\ to /3rj//,a, u<p' ov crtpivw 6 Negcov diekeyelo, ava€^veu 
r)^s\Yjosv Idovleg ouv ctvTYjV exelvoi -crA^cr ict^ovvctv , e7reiarav tov 
vsai//o~xov Tj?goxct\a&y\vcti xcti x&gocnrctvlrpcti rrj fuflglj chg xcti km 
§s%ivo<ysi tivi' Tngct^evTOg he toutou, outs tots eitctyr^ov, e^ct- 
Xovleg Tivct ctWlctv, caale py xcti eg Tovg (3ctg£ctgovg to voo~r\^ct TYJg 
ugyyg \x$ctv?\va.i % xcti \Le\c\ tout, engctTlov, 07rwg ^cvjSev It ct\)Ty\ 
eTtdgeTBY^ou* xct\egycto~u\j«evoi he touto, cuvto) tyjv ctgyrp ct7rcto~atv 
'usciLgk'ko&ov i xcti hiwxYjo-ctv £<p' oo~ov YjhvvYjSYicrctv ugig-ct xcti hixctio- 

Tctlct. Again he says these two ministers so con- 
ducted themselves, M* two tsuvIcov ctvQf>w7rwv booing l-Kcti- 
vsbr)vcti. — Lib. lxi. 

There is much doubt hanging about the appro- 
priation of the different works bearing the name of 
Seneca. Justus Lipsius has a long article on the 
subject, in which is the following passage : — 
"L. Annseus Seneca Philosophus patrem habuit 
nomine et cognomine eodem. Is domo Corduba 
fuit ; professione, Rhetor. Natus ante bellum 
civile Caesarianum, supervixit ad Claudii circiter 
principatum : sine honoribus, et non aliud quam 
provincialis eques. Is jam senex non dubie filiis 
suis scripsit, aut dictavit potius, hos qui supersunt 
Controversiarum et Suasoriarum libros. Sed ut in 
Plauti fabula, inter duos Mensechmos : sic inter 
duos Senecas confusione nominum ortus error. 
Tributa illi, quae hujus sunt : et claritate nimia 
filii obscurus pater hodie, imo ignotus. Memoriam 
boni senis fugitivam (impune hoc dixerim) primus 
retraham ego. Ejus, inquam, Senecse hi libri. Doceo 
ex astate : quae patri convenit, disconvenit proli. 
Doceo ex inscriptione, quae in omnibus libris, etiam 
scriptis, concipitur : L. Annaei Senecce, ad Senecam, 



300 ON SENECA. 

Nomtum, et Melam Filios. Optime. Inter tres 
filios quos nominat, Seneca Philosophus est: re- 
liqui ejus fratres. Stemma tale : 

L. Annaeus Seneca, f L. Annaeus Seneca, qui Philosophus. 

qui Rhetor. -j Annaeus Novatus, aliter Junius Gallio. 

Elbia, ejus uxor. [ Annaeus Mela, sive Mella, pater Lucani." 

Elect orum, lib. i. 

The prose works bearing the name of Seneca are 
generally printed together, of which the Decla- 
mationes, and the Controversiarum Libri are gene- 
rally taken to have been written by the father. 
The Tragedies generally form a separate publica- 
tion, and the authorship remains uncertain ; but 
there seems a strong probability, from the passion 
of Nero for the stage, and the sarcasms thrown out 
by the preceptor Seneca's accusers, on his turning 
poet as a time-serving measure, that at least some 
of them were written by him. There is however no 
discrepancy of style, to fix any particular pieces on 
him, whom with all his faults we may justly deno- 
minate the great Seneca. The style indeed is in 
itself a strong argument of their genuine ascription. 
It has the defects and the merits of his prose. It 
is the style which such a prose writer might be 
supposed to have formed, when he turned his 
thoughts to poetical composition. With respect to 
the tragedies themselves, they have all the faults, 
and more than the faults of their age. They are 
professedly formed on the model of the Greek 
tragedies, and in many parts actual translations. 
But whether translated or only imitated, there is 
too frequently a bombastic exaggeration of the 
original. This is the besetting fault: but it is 
redeemed by many spirited passages, and occa- 



ON SENECA. 301 

sionally by high flights of sublimity. It is however 
the fashion to abuse these tragedies in the lump. 
Mr. Hodgson, who " studies his fellow- creatures as 
well as books," says that thousands have sworn to 
the opinion of Quinctilian, who could not have 
construed that opinion into their native language. 
It may also be safely affirmed, that many abuse 
Seneca's Tragedies by way of being classical in 
company, especially if ladies be present, who have 
never read a word of them. I shall pursue this 
subject no further than to give a specimen or two 
of his style : — 

Dextra cur patrui vacat ? 
Nondum Thyestes liberos deflet suos ? 
Ecquando toilet ? Ignibus jam subditis, 
Spument ahena : membra per partes eant 
Discerpta : patrios polluat sanguis focos : 
Epulas instruantur, non novi sceleris tibi 
Con viva venies. Liberum dedimus diem, 
Tuamque ad istas solvimus mensas famem. 

Thyestes^ Actus 1. 

En, impudicum crine contorto caput 

Laeva reflexi. Hippoli/tus, Actus 2. 

Discedo, exeo, 
Penatibus profugere quam cogis tuis 
Ad quos remittis ? Phasin et Colchos petam, 
Patriumque regnum, quaeque fraternus cruor 
Perfudit arva ? quas peti terras jubes ? 
Quae maria monstras ? Pontici fauces freti ? 
Per quas revexi nobiles regum manus, 
Adulterum secuta per Symplegadas ? 
Parvumne Iolcon, Thessala an Tempe, petam ? 
Quascunque aperui tibi vias, clusi mini. 

Medea, Actus 3. 



302 ON SENECA. 

The passage, "nobiles regum manus," is evidently 
imitated from Ovid, " Mota manus procerum est." 
Statius uses manus in the sense of a set of servants, 
in his Sylvae. As a last example of the author, take 
the following : — 

Tuque 6 magni nata Tonantis 

Inclita Pallas, quae Dardanias 

Ssepe petisti cuspide turres : 

Te permisto matrona minor 

Majorque choro colit, et reserat 

Veniente dea templa sacerdos : 

Tibi nexilibus turba coronis 

Redimita venit. Agamemnon^ Actus 2. 

I cannot agree with Mr. Gifford, that Seneca 
has been " at the Fair of good names, and bought 
a reasonable commodity of them." On the con- 
trary, I think the critics have sold his name at too 
low a price ; and that the opinion-suckers of the 
critics often make a market of their shrewdness 
and discrimination, in lauding the Augustan age 
at the expense of that which succeeded it, without 
knowing much about either. The unfavourable 
opinion of Mr. Gifford himself however, whose 
extensive reading and sound judgment both in 
classical and English literature is scarcely to be 
matched in the present day, is of far more im- 
portance than any thing to be picked up at the 
Fair. Still, every man has a right to think for 
himself; and as I, while thinking for myself, think 
with my before- mentioned friend Mr. Hodgson, I 
will conclude with transcribing his judgment of 
Seneca, which is expressed in a much more em- 
phatic manner than any into which I could translate 
the same opinion. " I think then that Seneca was a 
deep enquirer into the human heart ; that his philo- 



ON SENECA. 303 

sophical observations generally arise from true 
principles ; and that he eminently possesses that 
first characteristic of genius, the power of lively 
illustration. His language is often, to my taste, 
delightful ; full of figure and metaphor ; by turns 
playful or severe, as his subject varies. It doubt- 
less is sometimes falsely ornamented ; but I cannot 
think he deserves any thing less than predomi- 
nating praise from a reader whom he has so much 
amused." 



304 



ON AUSONIUS. 



Julius Ausonius was the father of the poet. He 
was born in the neighbourhood of Bourdeaux, and 
settled there as a physician. His wife's name was 
iEmilia iEonia, daughter of Cecilius Argicius Arbo- 
rius, who fled into Aquitain, after a proscription by 
which he was deprived of his estates in Burgundy. 
Arborius established himself in the city of Acqs 
on the Adour, and married a woman of genteel 
birth but no fortune, whose name was ^Emilia 
Corinthia Maura. By this marriage he had one 
son and three daughters. The son was iEmilius 
Magnus Arborius. He gave lectures on rhetoric 
at Toulouse, and took particular care of the poet's 
education. One of the daughters was married to 
Julius Ausonius, and had four sons, of whom the 
poet was the second. Julius Ausonius was a per- 
son of great merit. His conduct was marked by 
the greatest possible consistency. His professional 
benevolence was unbounded in the admission of 
gratuitous patients. His hatred of lawsuits was 
as remarkable as his medical zeal. He neither in- 
creased nor diminished his private fortune : he was 
harassed neither by envy nor ambition : he hejd 
swearing and lying to be kindred vices, and be- 
lieved that he who would do one would do the 
other. He avoided private conspiracies and public 



ON AUSONIUS. 305 

broils, and satisfied himself with cultivating ho- 
nourable friendships, He was married forty-five 
years, and kept his conjugal faith inviolably. His 
high qualities are recorded with filial piety by his 
son, in his Epicedion in Patrem suum Julium Auso- 
nium. He is there made to say of himself : — 

Judicium de me studui prsestare bonorum : 
Ipse mihi nunquam, judice me, placui. 

Indice me null us, sed neque teste, pent. 

Felicem scivi, non qui, quod vellet, haberet : 
Sed qui per fatum non data non cuperet. 

Non occursator, non garrulus, obvia cernens, 
Valvis et velo condita non adiL 

Famam, qua posset vitam lacerare bonorum, 
Non finxi : et verum si scierim, tacui. 

Deliquisse nihil nunquam laudem esse putavi, 
Atque bonos mores legibus antetuli. 

He is described as not eloquent in Latin, but suf- 
ficiently so in Greek : — 

Sermone impromptus Latio : verum Attica lingua 
Suffecit culti vocibus eloquii. 

He had the honours of several high offices conferred 
on him as a personal compliment, with an exemp- 
tion from the labour of exercising them in person. 
He died at the age of ninety years, without having 
felt any decay. 

Curia me duplex, et uterque Senatus habebat 
Muneris exsortem, nomine participem. 

Ipse nee affectans, nee detrectator honorum, 
Praefectus magni nuncupor IllyricL 
x 



306 ON AUSONIUS. 

Nonaginta annos baculo sine, corpore toto 
Exegi, cunctis integer officiis. 

The following couplet of the above, seems to be 
an elegiac concentration of a glowing and elegant 
passage in Horace's ninth ode of the fourth book : — 

Felicem scivi, non qui, quod vellet, haberet, 
Sed qui per fatum non data non cuperet. 

Non possidentem multa vocaveris 
Recte beatum ; rectius occupat 
Nomen beati, qui Deorum 
Muneribus sapienter uti, 
Duramque callet pauperiem pati ; 
Pejusque leto flagitium timet ; 
Non ille pro caris amicis 
Aut patria timidus perire. 

Another line bears the appearance of a moral appli- 
cation to a critical remark in the Art of Poetry : — 

Deliquisse nihil nunquam laudem esse putavi. 

Idcircone vager, scribamque licenter; ut omnes 
Visuros peccata putem mea, tutus et intra 
Spem veniae cautus ? vitavi denique culpam, 
Non laudem merui, 

Ausonius celebrates his father also in his Paren- 
talia. The preceding passages are in his Idyllia ; — 

Non quia fatorum nimia indulgentia : sed quod 

Tarn moderata illi vota fuere viro. 
Quern sua contendit septem Sapientibus setas ; 

Quorum doctrinam moribus excoluit : 
Viveret ut potius, quam diceret arte sophorum, 

Quamquam et facundo non rudis ingenio. 



ON AUSONIUS. DU7 

Inde et perfunctae manet haec reverentia vitae ; 

iEtas nostra illi quod dedit hunc titulum : 
Ut nullum Ausonius, quem sectaretur, habebat; 

Sic nullum, qui se nunc imitetur, habet. 

The elder Ausonius, though not eloquent in 
Latin, wrote several medical works spoken of with 
approbation. There is no evidence in the poet, 
though the fact has been stated, that the father was 
physician to the emperor Valentinian, before his 
son was appointed preceptor to Gratian, 

The poet's grandfather by his mother's side, 
Cascilius Argicius Arborius, was an adept in astro- 
logy. He had cast the scheme of his grandson's 
nativity, and concealed it ; but it was ultimately 
discovered by the mother: — 

Tu cceli numeros, et conscia sidera fati 
Callebas, studium dissimulanter agens. 

Non ignota tibi nostras quoque formula vitae, 
Signatis quam tu condideras tabulis ; 

Prodita non unquam : sed matris cura retexit, 
Sedula quam timidi cura tegebat avi. 

Arborius had been frequently exposed to the 
severity of fortune. Among other calamities, his 
only son died at the age of thirty. He derived 
consolation from the vista vision of his grandson's 
honours opened to him by his astrological re- 
searches : — 

Dicebas sed te solatia longa fovere ; 

Quod mea praecipuus fata maneret honos. 
Et modo conciliis animarum mixte piorum 

Fata tui certe nota nepotis habes. 
Sentis quod quaestor, quod te praefectus, et idem 

Consul, honorifico munere commemoro, 
x 2 



308 ON AUSONIUS. 

The expression, " Et conscia sidera fati callebas," 
is taken verbatim from Virgil, in one of the finest 
parts of the iEneid ;— 

Ipsa, mola manibusque piis, altaria juxta, 
Unum exuta pedem vinclis, in veste recincta, 
Testatur moritura Deos, et conscia fall 
Sidera ; turn, si quod non aequo fcedere amantes 
Curae numen habet justumque memorque, precatur. 

In the above passage, the poet supposes his 
grandfather's soul not to be unconscious of the 
fact, nor indifferent to it, that the predictions of 
the nativity were duly accomplished, and that the 
prognosticated dignities had been conferred at the 
emperor's court. In another passage of the Pro- 
fessores, he relapses into scepticism : — 

Et nunc, sive aliquid post fata extrema supersif, 
Vivis adhuc ; aevi quod periit, meminens :* 

Sive nihil superest, nee habent longa otia sensus r 
Tu tibi vixisti : nos tua fama juvat. 



We are told that the good Homer sometimes 
takes a nap; Ausonius's Christianity must at this 
moment have been under his nightcap. This 
passage, and other features of his works, have 
given rise to an opinion on the part of some writers, 
that he was a Pagan ; and Paulinus has been quoted 
as having censured him on that ground. As among 
the epistles to Ausonius, there is one from Paulinus, 
he shall speak for himself: — 

* An abominable participle of the lower ages. 



ON AUSONIUS. 309 

At si forte itidem, quod legi, et quod sequor, audis, 
Cordapio vovisse Deo, venerabile Christi 
Imperium docili pro credulitate sequentem, 
Persuasumque Dei monitis, geterna parari 
Prasmia mortali, damnis prsesentibus emta, 
Non reor id sano sic displicuisse Parenti, 
Mentis ut errorem credat, sic vivere Christo, 
Ut Christus sanxit. 

The probability is that, had Ausonius professed 
Paganism, so holy a man as Paulinus would have 
earnestly exhorted him to be baptised, and to 
become a member of the Christian communion. 
But there is nothing of this kind in the epistle. 
Yet Brietius, in Syntagmata de Poetis, asserts from 
the works of Paulinus, as he says, but without 
mentioning where, and perhaps taking it on hearsay 
without consulting the original, that he was a 
heathen : — " Ex Paulino certum est eum Ethni- 
cum fuisse, quare opera Christiana huic adjudi- 
cari solita sine dubio alterius sunt." This is one 
way of filching from a man his good name, and 
robbing him of his identity as an author. Vossius 
also is in the same story, De Poet. Lat. : — " Poeta 
fuit Gentilis, quemadmodum ex Paulino liquet, 
ut, quae Christum celebrant, perperam illi sint 
tributa." It would be hard indeed, on such 
authority, to take from him the religious part of 
his collection, especially as those critics have no 
person in readiness to father the supposed found- 
lings. The poem in his Ephemeris, of which I 
shall transcribe the beginning, has been indeed 
ascribed to Paulinus ; but, as the Delphin editor 
justly observes, unless we be prepared to give up 
the whole of the Ephemeris, there seems no reason 
for judging away its most elegant and meritorious 

x a 



310 ON AUSONIUS. 

pieces, on no internal evidence, and of external, 
nothing beyond vague conjecture : — 

Omnipotens, solo mentis mihi cognite cultu, 
Ign orate malis, et nulli ignote piorum : 
Principio, extremoque carens : antiquior sevo, 
Quod fuit, aut veniet, cujus formamque modumque 
Nee mens complecti poterit, nee lingua profari : 
Cernere quem solus, coramque audire jubentem 
Fas habet, et patriam propter considere dextram, 
Ipse opifex rerum, rebus causa ipse creandis, 
Ipse Dei Verbum, Verbum Deus, anticipator 
Mundi, quem facturus erat : generatus in illo 
Tempore, quo tempus nondum fuit : editus ante 
Quam jubar, et rutilus caelum illustraret Eous : 
Quo sine nil actum, per quem facta omnia : cujus 
In ccelo solium : cui subdita terra sedenti, 
Et mare, et obscurse chaos insuperabile noctis : 
Irrequies, cuncta ipse movens, vegetator inertum : 
Non genito genitore Deus, qui fraude superbi 
Offensus populi, gentes in regna vocavit, 
Stirpis adoptivae meliore propage colendus : 
Cernere quem licuit proavis : quo Numine viso, 
Et Patrem vidisse datum : contagia nostra 
Qui tulit, et diri passus ludibria leti, 
Esse iter seternse docuit remeabile vitse : 
Nee solam remeare an imam, sed corpore toto 
Ccelestes intrare plagas, et inane sepulchri 
Arcanum vacuis adopertum linquere terris. 

The passage, " Cujus in ccelo solium, cui subdita 
terra sedenti," was evidently suggested by the open- 
ing of chap. Ixvi. of Isaiah : — " Thus saith the 
Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is 
my footstool: where is the house that ye build 
unto me ? and where is the place of my rest ? For 
all those things hath mine hand made, and all 
those things have been, saith the Lord: but to 



ON AUSONIUS. oil 

this man will I look, even to him that is poor and 
of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word/' 

Again, " Quo Numine viso, et Patrem vidisse 
datum," is translated from chap. xiv. of John : — 
4 'Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, 
and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him. Have I 
been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not 
known me, Philip ? he that hath seen me hath 
seen the Father ; and how sayest thou, Shew us 
the Father ? Believest thou not that I am in the 
Father, and the Father in me ? the words that I 
speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the 
Father, that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." 

The Versus Paschales and other pieces are sup- 
posed by many critics not to belong to him, as not 
being a Christian. Gyraldus has placed the mat- 
ter in its true light : — " Christianus quidem Au- 
sonius fuit, ut ex ejus versibus, et item Paulini 
ejus discipuli facile colligimus : sed petulantior 
tamen, et lascivior, quam ut inter Christianos nu- 
merari dignus sit." — De Poetarum Historia, dia- 
logus x. 

The poems to which this last censure particularly 
applies are his Epigrams, and his Cento Nuptialis. 
The charge is repeated by Scaliger the Father, 
who thought that nothing but the fire was capable 
of purging some of the epigrams. Father Brietius, 
influenced perhaps by the same zeal for morality, 
refuses him Christian fellowship. * But if the 
offence here so deservedly condemned is to dis- 
qualify a man from the profession of a Christian, 
we must not only shut up our Aristophanes, our 



* Rittershusius acknowledges he was a Christian, but de- 
nounces him as a monster, 

x 4 



312 ON AUSONIUS. 

Terence, and our Horace, as readers, but we must 
excommunicate a large majority of Christian poets, 
not only in the coarse, though brilliant age of 
Elizabeth, but in the progressively refining periods 
of Anne, and the third and fourth Georges. 
Those who have genuinely pure minds will know 
where to turn over the leaves which contain the 
false coin ^ for there is always in the title or the 
general subject something to indicate what is 
coming : but they need not throw away the pure 
ore with the dross. Nothing can excuse this 
offence. Pope has told us that w^ant of decency 
is want of sense, and has often exemplified his 
own precept. The situation of Ausonius at court 
is the most admissible excuse for the Cento Nu- 
ptialis, his most serious crime. He was aware of 
the blame he should incur, and professes his re- 
luctance to undertake the task. As he makes the 
best of his own case, we will apologise for him in 
his own words : — " Piget enim Virgiliani carminis 
dignitatem tarn joculari dehonestasse materia. Sed 
quid facerem ? Jussum erat : quodque est poten- 
tissimum imperandi genus, rogabat, qui jubere pot- 
erat, S. Imperator Valentinianus, vir meo judicio 
eruditus : qui nuptias quondam ejusmodi ludo 
descripserat, aptis equidem versibus et compositione 
festiva. Experiri deinde volens, quantum nostra 
contentione prascelieret, simile nos de eodem con- 
cinnare praecepit. Quam scrupulosum hoc mihi 
fuerit, intellige. Neque anteferri volebam, neque 
posthaberi : quum aliorum quoque judicio dete- 
genda esset adulatio inepta, si cederem : insolentia, 
si ut aemulus eminerem. Suscepi igitur similis 
recusanti : feliciterque obnoxius gratiam tenui, nee 
victor orTendL" 



ON AUSONXUS, 313 

The culprit has surely in some degree extenuated 
his misdeed by the modesty of his apology, by 
the elegance of his prose at so late a period of the 
Latin language, and above all by his masterly ex- 
position of the distresses under which a court-poet 
labours, when "the Manager writes himself." 
Modern courts are too refined and too pious ever 
to admit the approach of contamination in word 
or deed : but should it ever be our lot to have a 
third Charles like the second, it might puzzle a 
laureate to maintain his sanctity. The before- 
mentioned pote?itissimum imperandi genus is a pow- 
erful thumb- screw ; and might extort dithyrambics 
from a psalm -singer. But the whole court on this 
occasion must have run a-muck ; for Valentinian 
himself, who forced his laureate from his propri- 
eties by compelling him to contend for the prize, 
was a person, in his general habits, of strictness 
and gravity, of modesty and chastity. Such is the 
character given of him by Ammianus Marcel- 
linus: — "Omni pudicitiaa cultu domi castus et 
foris, nullo contagio conscientise violatus obscense, 
nihil incestum : hancque ob causam tamquam reti- 
naculis petulantiam frenarat aulas regalis: quod 
custodire facile poterat, necessitudinibus suis nihil 
indulgens, quas aut in otio reprimebat, aut me- 
diocriter honoravit, absque patre : quern temporis 
compulsus augustiis, in amplitudinis suae societatem 
adsumpsit." — Lib. xxx. cap. 10. 

But to return to the charge of Paganism : there 
is no evidence of it either in these obliquities or in 
Paulinus. On the contrary, in the epistle of Auso- 
nius Paulino suo, though it may intimate that the 
courtier thought the monastic seclusion too nearly 
allied to misanthropy, there is none of that scoff 



314 ON AUSONIUS. 

which an unbeliever would have been likely to 
throw into the treatment of the subject: — 

Tristis, egens, deserta colat : tacitusque pererret 
Alpini convexa jugi : cui dicitur olim 
Mentis inops, coetus hominum, et vestigia vitans, 
Avia perlustrasse vagus loca Bellerophontes. 

It is also stated, that Ausonius was not only 
indebted to his uncle for his education, but that his 
early morals and opinions were superintended by 
two of his aunts, who were nuns. Whether this be 
an unquestionable fact in history, may not perhaps 
at this distance of time be easily decided. But 
supposing it to be so, it settles the question. 
Christianity was now triumphantly established ; 
and the instances were few, if any, of Christian 
children becoming Pagans when they arrived at 
maturity. It has been suggested that Claudian as 
well as Ausonius were influenced by Symmachus 
to abjure the Christian faith ; and St. Augustin is 
quoted for the fact. St. Augustin says nothing 
about Ausonius, but does say that Claudian was 
attached to Paganism. There is no evidence that 
Claudian ever was a Christian. The seven letters 
of Symmachus which appear in front of the Delphin 
edition of Ausonius, prove friendship, but nothing 
more: the friendship produced by conformity of 
literary tastes and pursuits ; not the attachment of 
brother sectaries. At all events, a strong inference 
on the subject is to be derived from the unquestion- 
able position, that the morality of Ausonius when 
in a grave temper of mind, though for poetical 
purposes referring to Pythagoras and the ancient 
sages of Greece, was worthy of a better system. 



ON AUSONIUS. 315 

In evidence of this, we may refer to one of the 
Idyllia, beginning thus : — 

Vir bonus, et sapiens, qualem vix repperit unum 
Millibus e multis hominum consultus Apollo, 
Judex ipse sui, totum se explorat ad unguem. 

Ausonius tells us, in his Gratiarum Actio, that 
he was made prefect of the Preetorium by the 
Emperor Gratian : — " Tot gradus nomine Comitis 
propter tria incrementa congestis ex tuo merito, 
te ac patre principibus, Quaestura communis : et 
tui tantum Praefectura beneficii, quae et ipsa non 
vult vice simplici gratulari, liberalius divisa quam 
juncta : quum teneamus duo integrum, neuter 
desideret separatum.' ' 

Ausonius was consul in 379, and, to give one 
halfpenny worth of the bread of chronology with 
all this critical sack, he lived to the year 394 or 
thereabouts. His advancement to the prefecture 
of the Praetorium of Italy had taken place in 376, 
five months after the death of the Emperor Valen- 
tinian. His son Hesperius was his colleague. 
Ausonius was made prefect of the Praetorium in 
Gaul about the same time ; and in 377 Ausonius 
executed the office in Italy, and Antonius in Gaul. 
In 378 Antonius acted in Italy, Ausonius and his 
son in Gaul ; and they did not resign till 380. The 
following passage occurs in the Idyllia : — 

Quique suas rexere urbes, purumque tribunal 
Sanguine, et innocuas illustravere secures ; 
Aut Italum populos, aquilonigenasque Britannos 
Praefecturarum titulo tenuere secundo. 



316 ON AUSONIUS. 

This is not spoken of himself; for the poem 
was written in the time of Valentinian ; and Au- 
sonius did not come into the office of prefect till 
after the death of that emperor. 

Scaliger says in his Life of Ausonius : — " Hoc 
itaque tanto viro nascitur Burdegalse Decius Ma- 
gnus Ausonius nomine avi materni, cognomine 
patris." This is a mistake between the uncle and 
the grandfather. The grandfather of Ausonius by 
the mother's side was Caecilius Argicius Arborius. 
He left one son, ^Emilius Magnus Arborius. The 
two nuns were his aunts, ^Emilia Hilaria by the 
mother's side, Julia Cataphronia by the father's. 

After all the controversy which has taken place 
about the morality or immorality, the Paganism or 
Christianity, of Ausonius, his works speak suffi- 
ciently for themselves. When he professed to 
write gravely, he wrote piously and even theo- 
logically, as a long extract in this article will show : 
for there is no reason for taking it from him. 
When called on by the court, he wrote up to its 
temper ; and when he wrote sportively, he ex- 
plains himself thus : — 

Admoneo, ante bibas. 
Jejunis nil scribo. Meum post pocula si quis 
Legerit, hie sapiet. 



317 



ON THE CHARACTER OF CINNA. 



Vix quidquam in Sullae operibus clarius duxerim, quam 
quod, cum per triennium Cinnanae Marianseque partes Italiam 
obsiderent, neque illaturum se bellum iis dissimulavit, nec ? 
quod erat in manibus, omisit : existimavitque ante frangendum 
hostem, quam ulciscendum civem ; repulsoque externo metu, 
ubi, quod alienum esset, vicisset, superavit quod erat domesti- 
cum. — Paterculus, lib.ii. cap. 24. 

Cornelius Cinna was a patrician, but attached to 
the party of the people. Sylla, when he made him 
consul, had the precaution to administer a solemn 
oath to him, by which he pledged himself to sup- 
port his new patron's interest. How likely he was 
to feel himself encumbered by such an obligation, 
may be gathered from the character given of him 
by Paterculus : — " Cinna, seditione orta, ab exer- 
citu interemtus est ; vir dignior, qui arbitrio victo- 
rum moreretur, quam iracundia militum : de quo 
vere dici potest, ausum eum, quae nemo auderet 
bonus ; perfecisse, quae a nullo nisi fortissimo per- 
fici possent ; et fuisse in consultando temerarium, 
in exsequendo virum." Appian gives the follow- 
ing account of the effect produced on the opposite 
party by his appointment : — 01 Ss t&v yuya&wv <pl\ot, 

K<vv« to* [Asia. ^iVXXoLV v7rcilsuov1i $ctppovvls$, rob; vso7roXira.s ype- 

Ql£0V SC TO evQvfAYipot TOV MuploU, TOCig (pV\0U$ U%10VV 0tVU[Xl^^V0ll 9 



318 ON THE CHARACTER OF CINNA. 

Tva ju^ rsXsuluiot \[/vj<p;£oftsvoj tsrctvloov cocriv oixvpoi. . . *Av(W7a- 
[Asvoov 8g toov Scp^aloov xcxlcc xptxTog, Klvvug {Lev T0?S V807F0\ItolI$ (TVV- 
67rpciTls, vo[/.i£ofj,svo$ eiii Tcpfie Tpicxxotritx doopodoxYjcrcti TocXavTcv roig 
8' etgyrctloig 6 erspog vitarog 'Oxluoviog. xa\ ol jxey ol\l$\ tov Klvvav 
ixgo\c*&ov\eg ty)v uyogclv \letc\ xexgv\L\h'evoov %i<pi8lcov y e£6oov, eg Tc\g 
cpvX&g VTctorctg uvctfuyYJvcir to 8g xaQagooTegov izXrfiog hg tov 'Oxlct- 
oviov eyoogei, xctl o»8g ^ztoL %i<p&lcov» . * . oov 'Qxlaoviog -aroflojxsyo^ 
xocleicuve 8»a tv\$ iepag ohv pelcX tnvxvov 'urdvv ijj\r$ovg* xcu olot. 
^ei^dppovg eg tyjv ctyogdv e^ecrcov, oocrcxlo fj.lv 8j« [xecroov toov 
crvvecrTooToov, xcd 8<s<r7>j<rgv auTOug' cbg s e xoclenXYfeev, eg to toov 
Aiocrxovgoov legbv -sragrjAflg, tov Klvvav exIgeuTopevog. Klvvug 8g, 
§appv\o~cLg jxev too tzXYjQei tcov veo7roXiTobv } xcu (SictcrecrQcu -srgoo^o- 
xycrcig, zragcl lo^av 8' hgcov to roA/xyj/xa tcov okiyoolegoov ewixpu' 
tovv, avoL tyjv nokiV Uei 9 Tovg SepuvTOVTocg in ekevQepla. crvy- 
xctkcov. . . Tcxvto. 8' egycityfxevcp ts xcu IttivoovvIi too Klvva 
mgotretpuyov kiib t% fiov\r)g o"i to, ckvtol etygovovv, Tdiog te MiXooviog, 
xcu Koivlog ^eglcbgiog, kou Tctiog Mapiog eTegog, C H pev drj /3ouA>j 
tov Klvvctv, cbg ev xivfivvcp Te tyjv •ctoAiv xcciaKmovlcc vnctlov, xcu 
fiovXoig eXevQeglctv XYipv^uvloc, e^cplcroiio \ly\tz V7ralov \Kr\re 'utoXItyjv 
It* elvcu' xou Aevxiov MepoXav Ip£sipo7ov>]<rav olvt uvtov, tov legeoc 

tov Aiog. — Romanar. Histor. De Bellis Cwilibus, 
lib. i. 

The same events are also recorded by Plutarch 

in his Sertorius: 'Ewe* TeMdgiog pev mo %vKXa xgcti^eig 

'icpevye, ^uKKug cTe M»0m8aTtj -sroAgjayja-wv cmypev, toov Sg vttutoov, 
'Ox1u£iog [/.ev g7n Tv]g %vK\a vjgocupeo-etog epevev, Klvvag 8g veoo- 

Tegic^oov V7ro<pepo[j,eVY)v otvexaXeiTO ty)v Muglov g-acriv 

yevopeVY)g he roig wrotroig ev kyopa ^ayr\g ^eyk\r\g 9 'OxlctQiog fjJev 
hxgcxTYiQ-£V 9 Kivvug 8g xct\ ^,eg1oopio$ ou tzoWop eharlovg toov pvgloov 
tmo^cikovleg ecpvyov . . . "NLaplov De xalot7rXeuo-civlog ex Ai^vyg, 
xoti too JLlvvct vrgocrhQevlog ecvSiov, cbg }diooTY}vv7r<xTco } ^egTtbgiog 
d7TY)y6gevev eiTe tov Klvvctv y)t1ov o\6pevog eavlco ■urgocregetVi 
txvSgog riyepovixoolegov vrctpovlog, eWe ty)v fictguTYJlu tov Mugl 
Dedoixobg, fhv) tnctvlot, ra 'uygay^ala. orvy^er], ^v^co [xeTgov ovx eyov\ 
Tzegu. 8/kvjs ev too xgocielv 'urgoeg^p^evog elnovlog 8g tov 



iov 



ON THE CHARACTER OF CINNA. 319 

Kivva, TOLUTd ftsv ogQw; U7roKoyi^s(r^ut tov ^sgTwgiov, uldsio-Qcti de 
xct) dionrogsiv oncti$ oatwo-elca tov Mugiov auTog^ S7r) xoivouvla. 7rpu- 

yiLoftw xsxXyixws, Sertorius assented, r^ mis-ems pyfiev) 

Koyio-^ca %oi>goiv SfioucrYig. ovTcog pslotTrifiwelcei tov Motpw Klvvug- 
xoti Tgiyy TY)$ duvupsoog b s javepj0s/<njs tyyov ol rgslg. ^javoAsp}- 
fisvlog dl tov vjoXspov, xcc) Tcav meg) tov Kivvpcv xou Mugiov k^o- 
govpevwv vSgscog ts not) mixgidg a.TroLvqg, . • . ^egToogiog Ksys- 
rcii \L0v0g ours oL7rox1iiva.i Tivoi mgog ogyyv, outs hvGgtarai xgulwv, 
uKKol xa) too MctgloQ ^ua-^sgalvsiv, xcu tov Klvvuv svTuy^avMV 
J8/a xca dsopsvog fielgiwregov moietv, . . . 'E7rei §g Mizpiog 
fjt,h sts\s6t^o~s, xtxi Kivvoig uvYigeQy] [/.ixpov v?egov, 6 8s- veotviug 
Mupiog axovlog avTOV vragol Tovg vopoug wrctletotv sAa£sv, Kctg- 
£oovec 8s xa) NcogGuvo) xa) 2jxin7a>vg£ hnovlt ^yAAa xotxwg 

S7T0}J[JL0VV. 

After the decree of the senate against China, he 
repaired to Capua, where a Roman army was sta- 
tioned, and gained the officers who commanded it 
to his interest. With their sanction, the troops 
were convened. Cinna attended the meeting with- 
out the fasces, in the habit of a private man. This 
histrionic manoeuvre procured him an oath of. fide- 
lity both from the officers and the common men. 

An extraordinary circumstance is related to have 
happened in the course of this war : — "In quo 
bello duo fratres, alter ex Pompeii exercitu, alter 
ex Cinnae, ignorantes concurrerunt : et, quum vi- 
ctor spoliaret occisum, agnito fratre, ingenti lamen- 
tatione edita, . . . ipse supra rogum se transfodit." 
— Liv. epit. 79. The historian goes on to say 
that Cinna and Marius, with four armies, two of 
which were commanded by Sertorius and Carbo, 
laid siege to the city of Rome. 

It is to be noted, that young Marius joined his 
father when they left Africa, and sailed for Italy 
on China's invitation. 



320 ON THE CHARACTER OF CINNA, 

With China's invitation, he had given the elder 
Marius the title of proconsul, and had sent him the 
fasces and other badges of that dignity. During 
the operations against Rome, Cinna sent a party 
of soldiers to take possession of Ariminum, that no 
assistance might be sent from Gaul. Appius Clau- 
dius, to whom the guard of Janiculum had been 
intrusted, received Marius and Cinna into the 
place, ; but they were driven out again by Pom- 
peius Strabo and Octavius the consul. But Me- 
tellus was so much better a general than Octavius, 
that the soldiers of the latter proposed to transfer 
their services to the former. Metellus reproved 
them severely, and commanded them to return to 
the consul j but instead of obeying, they went over 
to the other party. 

Cinna had recourse to his old expedient : he 
proclaimed liberty to all the slaves in the city who 
should join him. As might naturally be expected, 
they flocked to him in crowds. The senate became 
greatly alarmed. The people were suffering much 
from the failure of their provisions, which seemed 
likely to produce general discontent. They there- 
fore sent deputies to Cinna, and made an inef- 
fectual attempt to negociate a peace* On the 
termination of the conference, Cinna advanced and 
encamped under the walls. The senate were en- 
tirely at a loss how to act, in consequence of their 
unwillingness to depose Merula, who had been ap- 
pointed consul in the room of Cinna. Merula vo- 
luntarily laid down his office, to remove all possible 
impediment in the way of the public tranquillity. 
The senate immediately sent a fresh commission to 
Cinna, with directions to acknowledge him as con- 
sul. At the conference Marius was standing close 



ON THE CHARACTER OF CINNA. 321 

to China's tribunal. Cinna soon afterwards entered 
Rome ; but Marius stopped at the gate, saying 
with gloomy and inauspicious sternness, that he 
was an exile, and forbidden to enter the city by 
the laws. If the people wanted his presence, they 
must repeal the sentence of banishment against 
him. It does not appear as if Cinna and Marius 
w r ere on very good terms at this juncture ; but 
community of crime and cruelty soon reconciled 

them. — "Oti o\ 'ursg) rov K/vvav kcc\ Magiov <TVV=$ge6(ruvl=$ peloi 
tcqv s7ri<poiVcfa.T(Jov Tiysfxovcuv s§ov\svovlo, ottoqs (ZeGaloog xcAus-Ypwvi 
ty}V elgYivw Te\o$ s8o£si> auTolg rou§ e7n<pav£s-txT0v$ tmv s^gwv, 
Ka) $vvo(.fAsvov$ a.[A(picr£Yilr i <rou 'ursqi -STpay^arcov, 'ura.vlug StTroxleivsu' 
Q7ra)g xct8uga$ ysvo(J,evYi$ t% Wi<x$ alg£crzoo$ xa) fxepldog, aSscuj to 
Xoittov, jcca w$ av tovXoovrai^ /xeTdfc tmv (piXoov footxovcri tol kol1u 

ryv Yiyepovizv. — Ecloga ex libro Diodori, 38. 

Cinna at a subsequent period commanded the 
officers to declare him consul a third time, without 
even the formality of holding the comitia. He and 
his colleague Carbo continued themselves in the 
consulship the year following, 669, and 83 before 
Christ. Suetonius gives the following account of 
his daughter's marriage with Julius Caesar : — " Ju- 
lius Caesar Divus, annum agens sextum decimum, 
patrem amisit : sequentibusque consulibus, dimissa 
Cossutia, quae, familiaequestri, sed admodum dives, 
praetextato desponsata fuerat, Corneliam Cinnae 
quater consulis filiam, duxit uxorem, ex qua illi 
mox Julia nata est ; neque ut repudiaret compelli a 
Dictatore Sulla ullo modo potuit." — Cap. 1. 

Great preparations were made against the Pro- 
consul Sylla, but they made no impression on his 
courage or resolution. He wrote a letter to the 
senate, enumerating all his great actions, from the 
period of his quaestorship up to that of the consul- 



8%% ON THE CHARACTER OF CINNA. 

ate, against the Numidians, the Cimbri, and the 
Italians. He related his victories over Mithridates 
with much amplification, and expatiated largely on 
the number of nations he had reduced to obedience 
and allegiance to the republic. But on nothing 
did he value himself so highly, as that his camp 
had been an asylum for those of the Roman citi- 
zens, whom China's cruel and profligate conduct 
had driven into banishment. The senate seems 
at this time to have lost all its firmness ; and as it 
was dragooned into suffering Mem] a to abdicate, 
for the purpose of making terms with Cinna, so 
now this haughty and ostentatious letter produced 
the intended effect of intimidation. Cinna pro- 
mised to obey the order, to raise no more troops 
while the negotiation with Sylla was pending. But 
practice makes perfect : and Cinna was a promise- 
breaker of long standing and repeated experience. 
No sooner had the deputies taken their departure 
from Rome, than the consuls made a progress 
through Italy. They enlisted soldiers, and formed 
different armies to oppose their enemy. But China's 
career was to be closed abruptly, with what critics 
call poetical justice, and plain men look at as moral 
retribution. Some of the newly raised levies re- 
fused to embark for Dalmatia. Cinna assembled 
them, and threatened to enforce obedience. The 
soldiers, who could not expect such a breach of 
discipline to be forgiven by so vindictive a man, 
mutinied, and murdered him. It is stated by Plu- 
tarch, that in addition to the obvious motives for 
this mutiny, the hatred entertained against Cinna 
was enhanced by the suspicion that he had mur- 
dered Pompey, who lived to experience many vi- 
cissitudes, and to acquire the title of the Great. 



ON THE CHARACTER OF CINNA. 323 

A circumstance is related respecting China's con- 
duct in his last moments, which points his tale with 
an important moral. To take a prominent part in 
civil broils, and to commit great personal crimes, 
both involve the necessity of strong nerves : but 
they do not necessarily imply mental courage of 
the genuine kind. Cinna, in his flight on the 
breaking out of the sedition, was overtaken by a 
centurion. That officer was the man who slew 
him : but Cinna attempted to purchase the remis- 
sion of the unauthorised sentence by falling on his 
knees, and offering a seal ring of great value as the 
price of his life. 



y 2 



324 



ON THE TITLES AND MYTHOLOGICAL CHARAC- 
TER OF MERCURY. 



I have already alluded to the practice of senti- 
mental swearing among the Greeks. No people 
ever so appropriately suited the action to the word, 
the word to the action, the sound to the sense. 
Dealers in horse-flesh would never think of swear- 
ing by any one but Neptune : the flaxen-headed 
ploughboy invoked Ceres : the sly chapman prayed 
to Mercury, to superintend his buyings and sell- 
ings in the market. But Mercury, like those of 
his disciples who grace the dock at the Old Bailey, 
tacked an alias to the end of his name, according to 
the occasion or the place. When the man of business 
wanted him, he was 'Egw$ 'Ayogxlo§, so named from 
uyogx, tlie market place. A statue of stone was raised 
to him in a city of Achaia called Pharee, and he de- 
livered oracular answers under a title suited to the 
occasion. What gave curiosity to this particular 
statue, was the unusual circumstance of its having 
a beard. Alow altar of stone was placed before the 
statue, on which stood vases of brass soldered with 
lead to receive those contributions, so necessary to 
give flexibility to the mysterious tongue. 

Another of his employments was to preside over 
sleep and dreams ; the night, and all that belonged 
to it. After praying to all the rest of the gods, 



TITLES AND CHARACTER OF MERCURY. 325 

men addressed Mercury last, and called upon him 
to send them a night of good dreams, as v-mou Soty. 
In the eighth book of Homer's Odyssey is the fol- 
lowing passage : — 

'A|<A<pi S 5 c\g egfuciv p^ss ^eCfLulx kvxXoo carkyitf 
YIoXKcl U xa) KotQviregQe jxsAaflgoipiv e^sxs^vvlo, 
'Hut' kgctyyuz A.s7r7«, t« k ov ks ti$ ovhs TSo»7o 
OtJSs Sswv [ACix.tx.goov zrsgi yug doXosvlu tstuxIo, 



On the word kg^o-iv, the scholiast gives this expla- 
nation : — ToTj &ro(ri t% xXivvig, Kgfxu yclg <wo~7reg s\o~) 7% 

x\ivvis vTctg* to hvslgearQou. But Eustathius furnishes US 
with a better etymology in reference to Mercury as 
the giver of sleep. Considering him in this capa- 
city, they carved his images on the feet of the bed, 
and called them Igfuvg* directly from his name. This 
seems a closer derivation than that of the scho- 
liast, and still further appropriate as connecting the 
god of roguery with this humourous detection. 

Another of his titles was XMvto;, the Infernal, 
probably in allusion to the power of vegetation : 
for seeds of every kind were dedicated to him, 
and carefully preserved in a pot ; and the people 
scrupulously abstained from making them articles 
of food. This particular consecration seems to have 
been a device of policy, to intimidate them from the 
premature waste of those productions, on which 
future subsistence and plenty were entirely to 
depend. 

Mercury was also Uo^cdo^ an epithet denoting a 
person conducting another on his way. In this 
capacity, he was master of the ceremonies to Pluto, 

y 3 



326 ON THE TITLES AND MYTHOLOGICAL 

and introduced the souls of the deceased to the 
shades below. Ajax, in Sophocles, addresses the fol- 
lowing prayer to Mercury before he stabs himself: — 

KaXco 8' ci[XOi 
Tio[A,7r<xiov l Epy,r t v %$6viov su ps xoi]U,iVa<, 
Buv a<r<pa8«s-«; xa) rar/fi tsnj&Jjxa?*, 
TlXevgoiv diappYj^avlu roods cpctvytxvco. 

In the Agamemnon of iEschylus, Cassandra 
makes a nearly similar prayer, without the direct 
mention of Mercury : — 

AtSoU tzuXois 8s tolc, Xsyctiy ^poa'sweTTM. 
'E7rey^0ja«i $s xcaglug -CTXyjyrjj tu^sTv, 
'£1$ ao-<pa8«f oc, cdfiuToov evQvYi<rlfAciov 
'Anofipvsvlwv, ofxfxoc <rv(A§akco rods* 

"Egpaiu was a festival in honour of 'Egpfc, Mer- 
cury, recorded by Pausanias, in Arcadicis, to have 
been celebrated in Arcadia, as by the Cyllenians in 
Elis. In a celebration observed by the Tanagrseans 
in Bceotia, Mercury bore the title of Kgiotpogoc, the 
Ram-bearer, and was represented with a ram upon 
his shoulder. The explanation of this emblem is 
understood to be, that in a season when the plague 
prevailed, he paraded the city with that burden, 
and cured all patients who applied to him. In me- 
mory of that deliverance, it became the custom 
for one of the most elegant young men in the 
city to perambulate the walls with a lamb or a 
ram upon his shoulders. Another festival of Mer- 
cury was observed in the gymnastic schools of 
Athens, of which I am, according to academic 
phrase, in private duty bound to make honourable 



CHARACTER OF MERCURY. 3TJ 

mention. It was what in our public schools is 
called a holy day without exercise : the boys of 
course played at something resembling cricket ; 
and the master's presence was not considered to 
spoil sport. But if by any momentary forgetful- 
ness of the conditions, he brought into the arena 
an old fellow like himself the established law was, 
that he should undergo the discipline he on ordi- 
nary occasions inflicted. 

We have already observed, that Mercury was 
appointed to the office of conveying the ghosts to 
the regions below ; and that for the reason therein 
involved, the dying made supplication to him in 
their last agonies. Valerius Maximus tells a story 
of a Cean matron, who determined to shorten the 
miseries of life by a dose of poison. But neither 
piety nor policy would allow her to approach that 
undiscovered country, from whose bourn no tra- 
veller returns, without a solemn petition to Mer- 
cury for easy stages, and a comfortable lodging at 
the end of her journey. Prayers to this effect 
were sometimes offered to Mercury, and sometimes 
to other gods ; and travelling prayers were always 
conceived in the same form, whether before a tem- 
porary journey to and fro, a permanent change 
of residence, or a final departure from, the world. 

But the outward-bound were not the only vota- 
ries of Mercury. Those who had only accompa- 
nied their departing friends to the coast were 
enlisted as tributary. At Argos, the surviving 
kindred or acquaintance sacrificed to Apollo, soon 
after they had put on their new mourning ; and at 
the end of thirty days they performed the same 
homage to Mercury. The rationality of this pro- 
ceeding, if there be any in it, is this : they con- 

y4 



328 ON THE TITLES AND MYTHOLOGICAL 

ceived that the earth received the body, but that 
Mercury received the soul. The barley of the 
sacrifice they gave to the minister of Apollo ; the 
meat they took to themselves. Having extinguished 
the sacrificial fire, which they accounted to be pol- 
luted if they turned it to any secular or gastrono- 
mical account, they kindled another, over which 
they broiled their dinner, and devoutly snuffed the 
fumes as they ascended. 

But we have advanced thus far without letting 
the reader into the birth, parentage, and education 
of our hero. History gives him out to be the son 
of Jupiter and Maia, which lady was the daughter 
of Atlas. His office was that of messenger to Ju- 
piter and the other gods. Eloquence was under his 
immediate patronage. We have already seen that 
merchants, and of course the profits of trade, were 
his peculiar care. A whimsical etymology is given 
for the translation of Hermes into Mercurius : as if 
the Latin name were a syncopised abbreviation of 
Medicurrius, medias currebat between gods and 
men. This surely places him very much in the 
situation of Francis, in Henry the Fourth : — 
" Anon, anon, Sir !" Mr. Greatorex, the Timo- 
theus of the present day, will know him for the 
inventor of the lyre and of the harp. Sir Walter 
Scott, Mr. Moore, Mr. Southey, Mr. Wordsworth, 
Mr. Hodgson, Mr. Merivale and the late Mr. Bland 
of anthological renown, will recognise him as the 
patron mercurialium virorum, of poets and men of 
genius. The leader of the opera band will hail him 
as the first practical musician, and the champion 
of England as the founder of the fancy. 

But the columns of our newspapers on the morn- 
ing after St. George's day bear witness, that the 



CHARACTER OF MERCURY. 329 

public care little about the persons or offices of the 
courtiers, unless they be made acquainted with 
their dresses. I therefore give notice to the hat- 
ters whom it may concern, that his petasus was a 
winged cap. I am not sure that the fulL dressed 
hats of the actors on the Theatre Francis furnish 
a correct pattern of the article. He would cer- 
tainly employ Hoby to furnish his talaria, if 
winged sandals were still in fashion ; and if feet 
were not likely to accept the Chiltern Hundreds in 
favour of rail-roads. His caduceus was a wand ; 
virga, the pedagogue calls it ; with two serpents 
about it. " Something too much of this !" As 
the god of merchants, and an officer to walk be- 
fore the Lord Chancellor, he bears a purse. 

Hie petit Euphraten juvenis, domitique Batavi 
Custodes aquilas, armis industrius : at tu 
Nil nisi Cecropides, truncoque simillimus Hermae ; 
Nullo quippe alio vincis discrimine, quam quod 
Illi marmoreum caput est, tna vivit imago. 

Juvenal, sat. 8. 

A statue of Hermes was religiously set up 
against the houses at Athens, of a cubic form, 
without hands or feet. This was called Herma. 
The figures here described were merely rough- 
hewn square stones, technically called termes, set 
upright ; but however shapeless the posts, the heads 
with which they were surmounted were of marble. 
Hermes also was used as a direction-post. He 
had no fingers, ours have no heads. The general 
opinion is, that the Greek name of the god was 
derived «tto toO egpyvsveiv, which means to show, or 
explain ; and thence some of his attributes at least, 
among the rest that of standing by the roadside to 



330 CHARACTER OF MERCURY. 

direct puzzled wayfarers. But Mr. Gifford is of 
opinion that this last office has reference to some 
obscure idea of his being the same deity with the 
Sun. We may indeed infer that it requires some 
light to be a direction-post, from the proverb Ex 
quovis ligno nonjit Mercurius : Every one cannot 
become a good schoolmaster. I am afraid the pro- 
verb will equally apply to the pupils. 

It is obvious why the tongues of the animals 
sacrificed were peculiarly devoted to Mercury. 

His other titles were, %t^ouo^ in which he seems 
to have been the prototype of our renowned Jo- 
nathan Wilde, combining the offices of thiefi thief- 
taker, and gaoler ; y Ep7roXulo$, Keg&aToj, Aohios, 'Hys^ovio^ 
'Ewywvios, Aiomovos, 'Egio6vio$, and in his capacity of 
gentleman usher to Pluto, XQovio$ and YLaTa&om\$, 

Cum multis aliis, quae nunc perscribere longum est. 



331 



ON THE MYTHOLOGICAL CHARACTER OF 
RHADAMANTHUS. 



Gnossius haec Rhadamanthus habet durissima regna ; 
Castigatque, auditque dolos ; subigitque fateri, 
Quae quis apud superos, furto lsetatus inani, 
Distulit in seram commissa piacula mortem. 

JEneiSy vi. 566. 



This distinguished public character in legal bio- 
graphy commenced practice in Crete. He gained 
considerable reputation by honourable conduct 
towards his clients, and a trick peculiar to himself) 
of impartiality in the distribution of justice. The 
career of honour in those simple and half-civilised 
days, was exactly the converse of ours : eminent 
men, instead of rising from the courts below to 
those above, descended from those above to those 
below. Rhadamanthus was accordingly promoted 
to the bench in that place, which in ancient times 
was not considered to bear a name offensive to po- 
lite ears. His Court of King's Bench was composed 
of three judges ; ours of four. Pindar refers to 
this tribunal in his Olympic : — 

Ta 8' Iv TaSs A ih j agx? 
'AA»1g«, xtxla. yu$ 8<xa- 



332 ON THE CHARACTER OF RHADAMANTHUS. 

"Ov 'UTCilyjg s%ei Kgovo$ eroi- 

' 'Yirsgl oti ! ov h^olo-ac Sgovov. 



333 



ON THE MYTHOLOGICAL CHARACTER OF PLUTO. 



The common sense of Pluto's character is, that 
he first instructed the Greeks in the decencies of 
funerals, and showed them how to perform the last 
offices to the deceased. In the early ages of man- 
kind, every new invention to improve the insuffi- 
cient comforts of life, every suggestion of improve- 
ment in morality, every advance towards refinement 
in manners, every suggestion of better feeling w r as 
made the subject of a fable. These inventions were 
partly stimulated by restless ingenuity, at a loss 
for subjects to work upon ; partly by the eagerness 
of gratitude to pay the debt due to the first be- 
nefactors and civilisers of our species. In the 
case before us, a fictitious empire in the shades 
below was assigned to this teacher of a pious duty, 
of an extent and vastness with which no mortal 
monarch could compete. Universal sovereignty, 
over such a portion of the earth as was then ripe 
to admit of the restraints and benefits of govern- 
ment, would have allowed of a very limited range : 
they therefore constituted him monarch of the 
dead ; not so much of regions as of ages. He was 
the brother of Jupiter. He was called Orcus ; and 
in relation to his pedigree, Jupiter infernus, or Sty- 
gins. Proserpina was his wife ; the daughter of 
Ceres. He possessed himself of her by forcible 
abduction, as she was gathering flowers in the Si- 



334< MYTHOLOGICAL CHARACTER OF PLUTO. 

cilian plain of Enna. This splendid marriage con- 
ferred on her the title of Juno inferna, or Stygia. 
There is considerable confusion between her attri- 
butes, and those of Hecate and Luna. The latter 
is the same with Diana. All these goddesses pre- 
side over sorceries and incantations. 

Neptune made up the triumvirate brotherhood, 
all sons of Saturn. In the division of the father's 
kingdom, Pluto had the western portion. As the 
most extravagant fables have some foundation in 
history or tradition, the apparent descent of the 
sun and the succession of darkness gave rise to the 
poetical imagination of gloomy regions, over which 
this emperor of the west was supposed to bear 
sway. His Latin name is Dis, which is merely a 
contraction of dives, analogous to the Greek, ITaou.- 
to$ and Uxoutcov : so that the noble pupil was right 
in treating Pluto as synonymous with Plutus ; and 
Dr. Pangloss was impertinently pedantic in his cor- 
rection. Sacrifices and lustrations were performed 
to him in the month of February, for a reason given 
by Servius: — " Februus autem est Ditis pater, cui 
eomense sacrificatur," Cicero makes good use of his 
character, in its unfavourable point of view, against 
Verres : — " Hie dolor erat tantus, ut Verres, alter 
Orcus, venisse Ennam, et non Proserpinam aspor- 
tasse, sed ipsam abripuisse Cererem videretur." — 
Act. ii. lib. 4. 

His title of Summanus is supposed to be a con- 
traction of Summus manium, 

Reddita, quisquis is est, Summano templa feruntur, 
Turn? cum Romanis, Pyrrhe, timendus eras. 

Ovid, Fastorum, 6. 



335 



ON A SENTIMENT IN CATULLUS. 



X hough I may have been disposed to apologise 
for Ausonius, in consideration of the extreme nai- 
vete with which he represents the imperial attempt 
to be poet as well as patron, and the timid nicety 
with which he adjusts the balance between the tact 
of the courtier and the fame of the poet, I again 
protest against any general indulgence on this head. 
With respect to expurgates editiones, they are ob- 
jectionable in point of policy, as only tending to 
inflame curiosity, and render that a matter of re- 
search, which might otherwise be glanced over 
hastily. I am led to revert to the subject, by a 
most profligate as well as illogical passage in Ca- 
tullus, a poet too popular not to be dangerous : — 

Castum esse decet pium poetam 
Ipsum ; versiculos nihil necesse est: 
Qui turn denique habent salem ac leporem, 
Si sunt molliculi, ac parum pudici. 

This is carrying the doctrine to its utmost ex- 
tent : that freedom is not only venial, but merito- 
rious and of the first necessity. On what ground 
the poet's conduct ought to be so decorous, when 
his very profession compels him to teach licen- 
tiousness ex cathedra, it may not be easy to explain. 



336 ON A SENTIMENT IN CATULLUS. 

This abominable sentiment has been often echoed, 
as for instance, by Martial. We all know the first 
to be true, but who will believe the last ? — 

Lasciva est nobis pagina, vita proba. 
Again more at full, in his epigram ad Cornelium : — 

Quid si me jubeas Thalassionem 

Verbis dicere non Thalassionis ? 

Quis Floralia vestit, et stolatum 

Permittit meretricibus pudorem ? 

Lex haec carminibus data est jocosis, 

Ne possint, nisi pruriant, juvare. 

Quare, deposita severitate, 

Parcas lusibus et jocis, rogamus; 

Nee castrare velis meos libellos. Lib. i. epig. 36. 

Ovid was sure to adopt the tenets of such a school: — 

Crede mihi distant mores a carmine nostri, 
Vita verecunda est, Musa jocosa mihi. 

Tully was of a directly opposite opinion : and 
though the following precept be more immediately 
directed against a fault of a different nature, it is 
equally applicable to the subject in question, both 
in his opinion and in the nature of things ; and it 
is a subject of congratulation, that the public mind 
of the present day goes with the more correct doc- 
trine, as evinced by the almost entire banishment 
of indelicate dramas from the modern stage : — " In 
primisque provideat, ne sermo vitium aliquod in- 
dicet inesse in moribus : quod maxime turn solet 
evenire, cum studiose de absentibus, detrahendi 
causa, aut per ridiculum, aut severe, maledice con- 
tumelioseque dicitur." — De Officiis, lib. i. So far 



ON A SENTIMENT IN CATULLUS. 337 

is this author from believing that he shall have 
credit for his deeds whose words are offensive to 
good morals, that he in effect chimes in with the 
doctrine of a more holy school : Out of his own 
mouth shall a man be judged. 



338 



EQUIVOQUES AND AMPHIBOLOGIES. 



Nullum esse verbum quod non sit ambiguum. — Cic. de Ora< 
tore, lib. ii. 



X here is a striking passage on this subject in the 
oratio pro Ccecina : — " An non, cum voluntas, et 
consilium, et sententia interdicti intelligatur, im- 
pudentiam summam, aut stultitiam singularem 
putabimus, in verborum errore versari : rem, et 
causam, et utilitatem communem non relinquere 
solum, sed etiam prodere ? An hoc dubium est, 
quin neque verborum tanta copia sit, non modo in 
nostra lingua, quae dicitur esse inops : sed ne in 
alia quidem ulla, res ut omnes suis certis ac pro- 
priis vocabulis nominentur ? neque vero quidquam 
opus sit verbis, cum ea res, cujus causa verba quae- 
sita sint, intelligatur ? Quae lex, quod senatuscon- 
sultum, quod magistratus edictum, quod foedus, 
aut pactio, quod (ut ad privatas res redeam) testa- 
mentum : quae judicia, aut stipulationes, aut pacti 
et conventi formula non infirmari aut convelli pot- 
est, si ad verba rem deflectere velimus : consilium 
autem eorum, qui scripserunt, et rationem, et 
auctoritatem relinquamus ? Sermo mehercule et 
familiaris et quotidianus non cohaerebit, si verba 
inter nos aucupabimur." 



EQUIVOQUES AND AMPHIBOLOGIES. 339 

The Latin critics have abundantly condemned 
these faults of expression : yet from the nume- 
rous instances quoted, the language seems to have 
been peculiarly liable to them. Quinctilian, lib. vii. 
cap. 10., brings forward several curious instances : — 

"Unde controversia ilia, Testamento quidam 
jussit poni statuam auream hast am tenentem" 

" Hceres meus uocori mece dare damnas esto or gen- 
ti, quod elegerit, pondo centum" 

" Nosjlentes illos deprehendimus" 

This same critic produces several instances of 
ancient pleasantry and graceful repartee ; nor does 
he seem to turn with absolute disgust even from 
tickling and practical jokes : — " Neque hoc ab 
ullo satis explicari puto, licet multi tentaverint, 
unde risus, qui non solum facto aliquo dictove, sed 
interdum quodam etiam corporis tactu, lacessitur : 
praeterea non, ut oratione moveri soleat : neque enim 
acute tantum ac venuste, sed stulte, iracunde, timide 
dicta aut facta ridentur : ideoque anceps ejus rei 
ratio est, quod a derisu non procul abest risus." — 
Lib. vi. cap. 4. This subject had been touched 
upon before, lib. i. cap. 10. Cicero says : - — "Suavis 
autem est, et vehementer saepe utilis jocus, et face- 
tiae: quae, etiamsi alia omnia tradi arte possunt, 
naturae sunt propria certe, neque ullam artem desi- 
derant." He goes on to produce a long string of 
them. 

The term sophist is closely connected with these 
degeneracies in wit and argument. Originally it 
signified a teacher of philosophy, as defined by Phi- 
lostratus : but its more modern sense, according to 
Suidas, is 6 I-k^oXjmv skoov h roig \oyoi$ : that is to say, one 
who deals out calumnies and cavils in his speech, 

z 2 



340 EQUIVOQUES AND AMPHIBOLOGIES. 

and that intentionally. Agreeable to this practice 
is the syllogistic mode of joking. We are told of 
a celebrated sophist in Paris, who had a high repu- 
tation for this kind of wit. He was in the habit 
of killing Charon in the following manner :— 

Morieris Charon, et sic argumentor. 
Omnis Caro moritur, 
Tu es Charo, 
Ergo morieris. 

The lawyers have not been exempt from this 
cacoetJies of argumentation. " Testamentum lex 
est. Solus princeps potest condire legem. Ergo 
solus princeps potest facere testamentum." 

This device was particularly convenient for the 
delivery of oracles ; and the Dii minorum gentium 
kept a large stock of them for daily sale. They 
had the great merit of not being by possibility 
wrong : witness this noted one : — 

Ajo te iEacida Romanos vincere posse. 

Omens were often conveyed in this equivocal 
manner, and prophecies of death made vehicles of 
wit. When Pompey had lost the field of Pharsalia, 
an unfavourable prognostic occurred to him. As 
he was threading his escape, near the island of Cy- 
prus, he remarked a magnificent palace, and asking 
its name, was answered, Kuxo$u<rl\sioi, the palace of 
the wicked king. The occurrence laid hold on his 
spirits. He could not help acknowledging that he 
was on the way to a treacherous and ungrateful 
man in the person of Ptolemy, to whom he had ren- 



EQUIVOQUES AND AMPHIBOLOGIES. 341 

tiered repeated and valuable services : and he had 
good reason to think so ; for he lost his life by him. 
There are two lines in Virgil, at the beginning 
of the fourth iEneid, where Dido, being desperately 
in love with ^Eneas, is introduced with the following 
words in her mouth : — 

Quis novus hie nostris successit sedibus hospes ? 
Quern sese ore ferens ! quam forti pectore, et armis ! 

The sense is obvious enough : — valiant in arms 
and courageous. But a company of wits once 
persuaded an eminent French critic, that all for- 
mer commentators and translators had misunder- 
stood Virgil ; and that the true interpretation of 
the queen's meaning was, Do look at his port ! what 
a fine stout fellow he is ! Forti pectore, they posi- 
tively insisted, could refer to nothing but square 
building, broad chest, and a more than ordinary 
proportion of shoulder. Nothing settles a classi- 
cal question so soon as a parallel passage ; they 
therefore fortified their critical discovery by quot- 
ing from Virgil himself : — 

Os humerosque deo similis. 

Horace delivers the following precept, which 
Dr. Kitchener must duly appreciate : — 

Fecundce leporis sapiens sectabitur armos. ' 

Here are three important informations couched 
in five words : one but just recovered in the recent 
editions. The wrong reading of the older copies, 
Fecundi, had thrown a wet blanket over a third 

z3 



312 EQUIVOQUES AND AMPHIBOLOGIES. 

part of our author's wisdom and experience : for 
he means to tell us by his epithet, and it is not 
always epithets have so much meaning, that the 
prolific nature of the female hare gives a peculiar 
zest to her wings. Besides ; what becomes of our 
grammar ? Hie lepus is not fecundus, unless we 
suppose the poet to use the adjective for the par- 
ticiple active. Furthermore, there is an amphi- 
bology in the word sapiens, bearing as it does two 
meanings, a man of good taste, and a man of good 
sense. The moral here meant to be enforced is 
clear : the wise man is he who always dines as well 
as he can. Sectabitur enforces the authentic doc- 
trine, that a hunted hare is best. A further in- 
ference is perhaps to be derived, that the emphasis 
on armos of the female is designed to recommend 
by an implied antithesis the lumbi of the male. It 
has been made a question whether armus, clearly 
derived from agpl;, is not to be confined to 
brutes. The statement in Ainsworth is, that it 
means a shoulder or arm ; more rarely, though 
anciently, of a man : but that in the Augustan age 
it began to be used only of beasts. That however 
rarely, it was applied to man in the Augustan age, 
is proved by the quotation from Virgil, and by 
another from Manilius. Ovid and Virgil are 
quoted for its bestial application. But there is a 
further proof that it was also understood as of 
man, in the word armilla, ab armis, i. e. brachiis, a 
bracelet or jewel, worn on the left arm, or waist, 
and given to the foot soldiers by their general. 
They were worn likewise by the women. 

To this head may be referred the whimsical 
derivation of Argnmentum, argute invention as a 



EQUIVOQUES AND AMPHIBOLOGIES. 343 

compound, not from the simple arguo. Again, 
Cicero, a cicere ; Lentulus, a lente ; Agrippa, ab agro 
partu ; Martins, a Martio mense ; Mantus, mane 
editus ; Servius, servatus in utero matre mortua : 
and many others of equal probability. But with 
respect to these fancies in etymology, founded 
on imaginary allusions in names, "Inde pravis 
ingeniis ad foedissima usque ludibria dilabuntur," 
says Quinctilian. 

Louis XI. was quite alive to the practical hu- 
mour of an amphibology. Philip de Comines 
relates the pleasant manner in which he wheedled 
the Constable de St. Paul: — "Le Roy nomma 
une lettre au dit Connestable ; et lui mandoit qu'il 
avoit bien a besoigner d'une telle teste comme la 
sierme." But he explained himself candidly and 
confidentially to M. de Contay : — "Je n'entends 
point que nous eussions le corps, mais j'entends que 
nous eussions la teste, et que le corps fut demeure 
la." This pious equivoque took effect, and the con- 
stable was ultimately surrendered and sent to his 
trial before the parliament of Paris, who passed on 
him the sentence of death and confiscation. One 
of the commissioners into whose hands he was 
delivered was M. de Saint Pierre. It was said on 
that occasion, that there was war in paradise 
between St. Peter and St. Paul. 



z4 



344 



ACROSTICS. 



1 his species of cleverness, not very difficult, is 
very much despised, and, I believe, very deservedly 
so. But it had many examples among the Latins, in 
particular the arguments to the comedies of Plautus, 
which were all of them made out after that fashion. 
A specimen may be given in that of Amphitryon, 
which stands first in the editions, and is selected 
for no other reason. There is neither more nor 
less of merit in any of the others : — 

Amore captus Alcumenas Juppiter, 

Mutavit sese in ejus formam conjugis. 

Pro patria Amphitruo dum cernit cum hostibus, 

Habitu Mercurius ei subservit Sosiae : 

Is advenienteis, servum ad dominum, frustra habet. 

Turbas uxori ciet Amphitruo : atque invicem 

Raptant pro mcechis. Blepharo captus arbiter, 

Uter sjt non quit Amphitruo decernere. 

Omnem rem noscunt : geminos Alcmena enititur. 



3i<5 



ECHO. 



Sex etiam, aut septem, loca vidi reddere voces. 

Lucretius. 

1 here is an account of two remarkable echos in 
Pausanias : one near Corinth : — Tou Ss t% XQovlag l$\v 

Ugov, fOix xutoI tyjv $e%ioiv 'Hp^oiJ^ V7rb rwv s7ri^capicov xciXoupevY)* 
<pQsy%apsvcp Ss av^gi roL oA/yi$-« e§ rgslg uv\i&0Y i <ja.i / ars<puxsv. 
The Other was in Elis : — E!<n §' o* t>)v g-oav TauTvjv xa) 
'Hp^oyj oyo/xa^ouci' fioqcravli Ss avSgl £n7axi$ u7ro Trjs ^%&~£ vj <pcov>j 
Itti t«§£, xai S7tj ■cxAsov st< a7ro&/$OTa;. 

Plutarch, in his treatise n^l 'ABoAe*-;^, mentions a 

third: T>jv ju,sv yag ev 'OAtijU,7na ?ooLv ccno i^iag <poovr]$ woXXac 

ccvluvccxXaasig •Groiovcrav, kvloiQcovov xaAoOcrr t% $ 'ASoAscr^/as av 
lAap^»fOj «\[/r/7ai Aoyoc, eu0u£ av7i7regn]p£6i, 

KjvoOca p^o^aj raj axiv^rou^ <pgsva3v. 

The poetical fiction of Narcissus and the Nymph, 
and the compassion of the gods in transforming 
disappointed flesh and blood into a last syllable, 
could not possibly escape the prevailing taste of 
Ovid, and an ample description in his Meta- 
morphoses. 



34,6 



LEONINE VERSES. 



This quaint style of composition, so justly decried 
as a specimen of ingenuity, seems to have derived 
its origin, not from bad taste, but naturally from 
the construction of the Latin language, in which, 
so far from any cleverness in the contrivance, the 
difficulty is to avoid jingle. The adjective and the 
substantive having most frequently the same term- 
ination in the same cases, and the places on which 
the ccesura falls in hexameter and pentameter verses 
favouring the position of the adjective in the mid- 
dle, and the substantive at the end of the line, 
these circumstances render those measures more 
liable to this accident than any other. They are ge- 
nerally spoken of as monkish inventions, after the 
taste of the Latin language and the spirit of the 
Latin poetry had materially degenerated, and rhyme 
had begun to supplant the prosodial quantity of 
the Greek and Latin. This is a correct represent- 
ation, if the Leonine verse be considered as a set 
form of composition. But the monks have the 
merit or demerit, not of originality, but of adoption 
and adaptation. Numerous examples are to be 
found in Virgil, Horace, Tibullus, Catullus, Pro- 
pertius, Ovid, and others of the ancients. You 
can hardly open their works without stumbling 
upon them. Take for instance Virgil, lib. vii. : — 

Ecce autem Inachiis sese referebat ab Argis. 



LEONINE VERSES. 347 

Ovid. Epist. : — 

Pingit et exiguo Pergama tota mero. 

Traditur huic digitis charta notata meis. 

And eight more instances within the space of se- 
venty-six lines, or at the rate of one in eight lines. 
Ovid was not likely to have felt much objection to 
what a highly cultivated ear must feel as a caco- 
phony ; but Virgil's judgment and pure taste must 
have been betrayed into it only from the difficulty 
of escape : and had the ^Eneid received his finish- 
ing hand, he probably would, in most cases, have 
contrived to avoid it. Cicero, though considered 
as a divine orator, was not an excellent poet, 
though not so very bad a one as some persons have 
with little discrimination represented him. In the 
poems on his own times, quoted by Quinctilian, is 
the celebrated line, — 

O fortunatam natam me consule Romam ! 

There is extant an epitaph on Pope Benedict 
XII. who is said to have come into the popedom 
like a fox, to have reigned like a lion, and to have 
died like a dog. We must not be very particular 
about the Ne in Nero. — 

Hie suus est Nero, laicis mors, vipera clero, 
Devius a vero, cupa repleta mero. 

The following furnishes a specimen of middle- 
age satire against the hierarchy : — 

Accipe, sume, cape, sunt verba placentia Papse. 



348 LEONINE VERSES. 

That on Bede is well known : — 
Continet haec fossa Bedae venerabilis ossa. 

The ingenuity of the following consists in its 
being an epitaph for four persons, in one line : — 

Filius hie, pater hie, et avus, proavus jacet isthic. 

The following couplet, it is to be hoped, is not 
so well founded in its ascriptions to certain exten- 
sive classes of the human, as in those to the brute 
creation : — 

Vulpes amat fraudem, lupus agnum, fcemina laudem, 
Vulnus amat medicus, presbyter interitus. 

The following, in addition to the profundity of 
the remark, will prevent us from slipping in our 
declensions: — 

Destruit os oris quicquid lucratur os ossis. 

Sir Walter Scott quotes the following splendid 
specimen in his introduction to the Battle of Otter- 
bourne : — 

Regibus et legibus Scotici constantes, 
Vos clypeis et gladiis pro patria pugnantes, 
Vestra est victoria, vestra est et gloria, 
In cantu et historia, perpes est memoria ! 

This rhyming propensity, originating, as we have 
already observed, in the peculiar construction of 
the Latin language, is carried to the extravagance 
of quaint pathos in the following stanzas of Fair 
Helen, a Scottish ballad : — 



LEONINE VERSES. 349 

O ! Helen sweet, and maist complete, 
My captive spirit's at thy feet ! 
Thinks thou still fit thus for to meet 

Thy captive cruelly ? 
O ! Helen brave ! but this I crave, 
On thy poor slave some pity have, 
And do him save that's near his grave, 

And dies for love of thee. 

To this Leonine origin may probably be traced 
the rhyming propensity of many proverbs in prose ; 
as, — Quails vita finis ita.* 

An old lawyer of the middle ages gives the fol- 
lowing satirical quatrain : — 

Annis mille jam peractis 
Nulla fides est in pactis, 
Mel in ore, verba lactis, 
Fel in corde, fraus in factis. 



* Alliteration is a favourite mode of proverbial expression ; 
as thus, — Fraud and frost end foul. Our law language also is 
much infected with the itch of rhyming. Art and part is a 
translation of ope et consilio. 



350 



EXPRESSIVE DESCRIPTIONS. 



X here is no poet who abounds with these more 
than Virgil ; and they are as highly wrought as 
frequent. No poet expresses in a more lively or 
picturesque manner, the nature of the action by 
the march of the verse. His dactyls and spondees 
were powerful instruments of description, " which 
we upon the adverse faction want." When he had 
any sudden action to describe, he always made use 
of dactyls, and of words selected with such care 
and skill, as to be, if not the echo, at least a symbol 
of the sense. The impotent blow aimed by Priam 
at Pyrrhus is well expressed by the inefficient 
labour of the verse : — 

Telumque imbelle sine ictu 
Conjecit. 

The following description of a storm, in the first 
book, has caught the attention and received the 
praises of all critics : — 

Ac venti, velut agmine facto, 
Qua data porta, ruunt, et terras turbine perflant. 
Incubuere mari, totumque a sedibus imis 
Una Eurusque Notusque ruunt creberque procellis 
Africus, et vastos volvunt ad litora fluctus. 



EXPRESSIVE DESCRIPTIONS. 351 

Insequitur clamorque virum stridorque rudentum. 
Eripiunt subito nubes coelumque diemque 
Teucrorum ex oculis ; ponto nox incubat atra. 
Intonuere poli, et crebris micat ignibus aether. 

The first and second books abound in instances 
of this excellence in description. You can scarcely 
open the volume without lighting on them. 

Cum subito assurgens fluctu nimbosus Orion 
In vada caeca tulit, penitusque procacibus Austris, 
Perque undas, superante salo, perque invia saxa, 
Dispulit. 

The description of the serpents devouring Lao- 
coon in the second has given occasion to one of 
the finest pieces of sculpture ever executed; a 
model of artist-like anatomy, uniting the expression 
of pain in every limb with the most entire know- 
ledge of the human frame, and exhibiting all the 
parts in terrific action. The sack of a town is 
strikingly represented in the two following lines : — 

Clarescunt sonitus, armorumque ingruit horror. 
The other, — 

Exoritur clamorque virum: clangorque tubarum. 

Popular sedition is finely described in a passage 
before quoted : — 

Saevitque animis ignobile vulgus ; 
Jamque faces et saxa volant ; furor arma ministrat. 

The opening of a door is so expressed that you 
may hear the grating : — 

Foribus cardo stridebat ahenis. 



352 EXPRESSIVE DESCRIPTIONS. 

Fear is completely personified, and shown in ac- 
tion in the following line : — 

Obstupuit, retroque pedem cum voce repressit. 

And in another passage : — 

Obstupui, steteruntque comae, et vox faucibus hsesit. 

The fall of a house is thus represented : — 

Ea lapsa, repente ruinam 
Cum sonitu trahit. 

Then the fire, — 

Ilicet ignis edax summa ad fastigia vento 

Volvitur ; exsuperant flammse ; furit aestus ad auras. 

In iEneidos iv. : — 
Stat sonipes, ac fraena ferox spumantia mandit. 

The death of Pompey the Great is sublimely de- 
scribed by Lucan : — 

Ut vidit comminus enses, 
Involvit vultus ; atque indignatus apertum 
Fortunae praestare caput, tunc lumina pressit, 
Continuitque animam, ne quas effundere voces 
Vellet, et aeternam fletu corrumpere famam. 

And a few lines further, — 

Seque probat moriens. 

See the death of Dido, as a triumphant example 
of pathetic description, in the fourth book of the 
iEneid. The good old poet Ennius thought alii- 



EXPRESSIVE DESCRIPTIONS. 353 

teration and imitative words the best engines of 
description, as in the two following instances : — 

At tuba terribili sonitu taratantara dixit. 

The other is quoted by Cicero in his third book 
De Or at ore : — 

Africa terribili tremit horrida terra tumultu. 

Martial describes the water of Dircenna as of 
icy coldness: — 

Avidam rigens Dircenna placabit sitim, 
Et Nemea, quae vincit nives. 

Lib. i. epig. 50. 



A A 



354 



VERSES OF WHIMSICAL CONSTRUCTION. 



Plutarch, in his Platonic Questions, has taken to 
himself the fancy, that Homer advisedly performed 
the feat of bringing all the parts of speech into 
one verse. That he has done so is certain ; but 
that the coincidence was accidental is almost 
equally so. The noblest poet of the world did 
not descend to grammatical tricks. The line is 
this: — 

Avrog Iwv xA*<n»)v§e to <rbv yegag o<pp s sv slSrjj. 

Pindar is stated to have composed a poem 
&<riypov. He might have been better employed; 
for this could not have been accidental ; nor was 
it worthy of the greatest lyric bard. So the curious 
in these matters have discovered a verse in the 
Seven Psalms, in which the letter A does not 
occur. This is no marvel, and must have been 
accidental. It was quite as easy and natural to 
leave the letter out in this case, as to put it in ; for 
it runs as follows, and has every appearance of 
chance-medley : — " Nolite fieri sicut equus et 
mulus, quibus non est intellectus." 



VERSES OF WHIMSICAL CONSTRUCTION. 355 

Scaliger brings forward a verse, which he calls 
Proteus, because you may arrange the six words in 
seventy-two different ways, without the alteration 
of a letter. He was a learned man ; but his trick 
in reference to the mythological transformation of 
Proteus is good for nothing but as a Christmas 
game for children, and too easy to puzzle even 
them. The line is this : — 



Perfide sperasti divos te fallere Proteu. 

It may be changed twelve times beginning with 
perfide ; as many times with fallere ; the same 
number with divos, with Proteu, and so on, making 
six dozen times. 

There is a curious monosyllabic whim in Au- 
sonius, indicating the decline of taste, but not 
destitute of ingenuity : — 



Res hominum fragiles alit, et regit, et perimit fors. 
Fors dubia, aeternumque labans : quam blanda fovet spes. 
Spes nullo finita aevo : cui terminus est mors. 
Mors avida, inferna mergit caligine quam nox. 
Nox obitura vicem : remeaverit aurea quum lux. 
Lux dono concessa Deum, cui praevius est sol. 
Sol, cui nee furto Veneris latet armipotens Mars. 
Mars nullo de patre satus : quern Thressa colit gens. 
Gens infraena virum : quibus in scelus omne ruit fas. 
Fas hominem mactare sacris : ferus iste loci mos. 
Mos ferus audacis populi : quern nulla tenet lex. 
Lex naturali quam condidit imperio jus. 
Jus genitum pietate hominum, jus certa Dei mens. 
Mens, quae ccelesti sensu rigat emeritum cor. 
Cor vegetum mundi instar habens, animae vigor ac vis. 
Vis tamen hie nulla est : verum est jocus et nihili res. 
A A 2 



356 VERSES OF WHIMSICAL CONSTRUCTION. 

The torturers of verses into jokes have discovered 
an increasing kind, where the first word is a mo- 
nosyllable, the second a dissyllable, and so on ; and 
have again pressed an accidental coincidence in 
Homer into their service : — 

Who would ever have suspected the severe Virgil 
of embellishing his Latin with such ornaments? 
The line of which he is accused, or in the estim- 
ation of the dealers in small wit, with which he is 
complimented, is, — 

Ex quibus insignis pulcherrima Dei'opea. 

But it happens, unfortunately, that there is no such 
line in Virgil. The lady is mentioned once in 
the accusative case, and once besides, thus : — 

Atque Ephyre, atque Opis, et Asia Dei'opea. 

But if we deprive them of this support, we can 
offer them an auxiliary from the heavy German 
squadron : — 

' Si cupis armari virtutibus Heliodore. 

Or we can draw up the following rank and file 
of syllables as military as poetical : — 

Dux turmas proprius conjunxerat auxiliares. 

Against these set a specimen of the decreasing : — 

Vectigalibus armamenta referre jubet Rex. 



VERSES OF WHIMSICAL CONSTRUCTION. 357 

Every schoolboy knows the hexameter and pen- 
tameter, composed of two words each : — 

Perturbabantur Constantinopolitani 
Innumerabilibus sollicitudinibus. 

Centos constitute another species of Lower Em- 
pire wit. That of Ausonius, so laboriously dull, 
begins thus. A short specimen will be sufficient to 
exhibit the taste of the contrivance, and to disgust 
the judicious admirer of Virgil with such a piece 
of patchwork : — 

Accipite haec animis : lsetasque advertite mentes, 
Ambo animis, ambo insignes praestantibus armis : 
Ambo florentes, genus insuperabile bello. 
Tuque prior, nam te majoribus ire per altum 
Auspiciis manifesta fides, quo justior alter 
Nee pietate fuit, nee bello major et armis. 

Proba Falconia, a Christian poetess, with more 
zeal than knowledge, composed a work on the Old 
and New Testaments, made up in this style, ex- 
clusively from the verses of Virgil. 

The following macaronic line is not only proso- 
dially, but grammatically whimsical : — 

Supplieat ut praestum praestum vindicta fiatur. 



A A 3 



358 



ROMAN NOTES. 



Et fugit ad salices, at se cupit ante videri. Virgil, 

AusoNius,who flourished under the emperor Theo- 
dosius, as well as under Valentinian and Gratian, 
lived just when the abrupt and compendious mode 
of writing was in the height of fashion. He no- 
tices it in his panegyric on a certain notary or 
scribe, in the following lines, commencing his 
epigram 137. : — 

Puer notarum praepetum 
Sellers minister, advola. 

The three Roman Notes which follow were, as 
every one knows, of long standing : — 

A. Absolvo. 

C. Condemno, 

N. L. Non liquet, when the business in hand 
was found to be doubtful. 

In Greek, was a mark of condemnation, as 
the first letter of S&mtos, signifying death*, and 
T the mark of acquittal : A that of adjournment 
to a future period. 

* Et potis es nigrum vitio praefigere tlieta. Persnis, 



ROMAN NOTES. 359 

The number of these abbreviations is very great. 
The following are a few of them : — 

A. B. V. C. Ab urbe condita. 

A. A. A.F.F. According to one interpretation, 
JEre, argento, auro, flavo, feriunto : according to 
another, that of Ainsworth, Auro, argento, cere, 
fiandoferiundo. 

A. A. L. M. Apud agrum locum monumenti. 

A. F, P. R. Actum fide publica Rutilii. Cicero 
playfully puts the following interpretation on it : 
jEmilius fecit, plectitur Rutilius. 

C. P. Censor perpetuus. 

D. Divus. D.D. Deo dicavit, seu dedicaverunt ; 
Dono dedit ; Deo domestico. 

D. M. Diis manibus ; Divce memorial ; Deo maxi- 
mo. Sometimes with S after it, meaning Sacrum* 
D. I. M. Diis htferis maledictis. 

B. M. P. Bene merenti posuit. 
P. P. Posuerunt. 

P. C. Ponendum curavit.. 

H. M. H. S. Hoc monumentum hceredes sequuntur. 

H. S. V. F. M. Hoc sibi vivens fieri mandavit. 

H. M. P. Hoc monumentum posuit. 

H. B. M. F. C. Hceres bene merenti faciendum 
curavit. 

I. T. C. Intra tempus constitutum. 

III.V. Triumvir. IIII.V. Quartumvir. X.V. 
Decemvir. 

I. O. M. I. Jovi optimo maximo immortali. 

T.F. Titifilius. 

To express the word Mulier, they reverse the 
M, and to express Mulier bona, they write M. B. 
This abbreviation has given rise to an absurd 
proverb, Midier bona mala bestia. 

a a 4 



360 ROMAN NOTES. 

N. F. N. Nobilifamilia natus. 

Ob M. P. E. C. Ob merita pietatis et concordice. 

P. S. F. C. Proprio sumpiu faciundum cur emit. 

R. P. C. Retro pedes centum. 

The following is very complicated, and only 
partly given in the ordinary list : R. R. R. T. 
S. D. D. R. R. R. F. F. F. F. Romulo regnante 
Roma triumphante sybilla JDelphica dixit regnum 
Romce ruet Jlamma, ferro 9 fame, frigore. 

The device of the Greek emperors was B. B. B. B. 

to denote B#<7»Asu£ fiu<ri\eoov (3cmtiXzvwv jSaenXeutn, i. e. 

King of kings reigning over kings. 

The same emperors also adopted this cipher )|(, 
on their public instruments, signifying XqivTos, 
Christ. 

The Latin letters XPS, often found in inscrip- 
tions, ought to be the Greek letters XP^. 

The Greeks had a proverb, Tqiu xccmtu 'xuxiara, 
the Cappadocians, the Cretans, the Cilicians, three 
wicked nations beginning with the Greek letter 
corresponding with C. 

The Romans bore on their standards, S. P. Q. R. 
meaning, Senatus Populusque Romanics. This has 
been adopted by certain religionists to express the 
following : Serva populum quern re demist i. An 
Italian on entering Rome applied it : Sono poltroni 
questi Romani. The Protestants of Germany gave 
it : Sublato papa quietum regnum. The Catholics : 
Solus papae quies regni. A wit seeing it inscribed 
on the chamber wall of a pope newly created, put 
this question to him : Sancte pater quare rides ? 
The jocular head of the church answered by turn- 
ing the letters the contrary way : Rideo quia papa 
sum. 



ROMAN NOTES. 36l 

L. L. L. M. M. Libertis libertabus locum monu- 
menti mandavit. 

PA. PA. Pater patriae. A pope having adopted 
this title, causing it to be written in large letters, 
it was construed two ways : Poculum aureum Petri 
Apostoli ; or, Petri apostoli potestatem accepit. 

MORS. Mordens omnia rostro suo ; or, Mu- 
tatis omnes res sepultas. Two words have also 
been given to each letter : M. Mutatio mirabilis ; 
O. Omnimoda oblivio ; R. Repentina ruina. S. Se- 
paratio sempiterna. 

When physicians were sworn in, on passing to 
their doctor's degrees at Montpelier, in the mid- 
dle ages, the professor gave them this solemn in- 
junction, Fade et occide CAIM, meaning that they 
were to try their " prentice hands" on Carmelites, 
Augustines, Jacobins, and Minorites. 
* The last compendium seems to have been a co- 
pious source of this kind of wit. A monk passing 
along the road, heard some people saying to one 
another as they were looking at him, — Beatce ur- 
bes ubi non habitat CAIM : he immediately an- 
swered, Beatissimce ubi non habitat FEL ; meaning 
Faber, Erasmus, and Luther, considered as heresi- 
archs at that time* 



m°z 



EPITAPHS. 



Purpuream vomit ille animam. Virgjl. 

There are three epitaphs in Aulus Gellius, which 
he inserts on account of their superior elegance 
and beauty : each of them written by the poets 
to whom they apply, for the purpose of. being 
inscribed on the tombs they had provided while 
living. The first is that of Naevius, full of inso- 
lence and arrogance : — 

Mortalis immortalis flere si foret fas : 
Flerent divae Camcenae Naevium poetam. 
Itaque postquam est Orcino traditus thesauro, 
Oblitei sunt Romae loquier Latina lingua. 

That of Pacuvius is a contrast to it, in point oi 
modesty, and has a remarkable portion of dignified 
elegance : — 

Adolescens, tamen etsi properas, hoc te saxum rogat, 
Utei ad se aspicias : deinde quod scriptu'st legas. 
Hie sunt poetae Pacuviei Marcei sita 
Ossa. hoc volebam nescius ne esses, vale. 



EPITAPHS. 363 

I place this second in relief to the other, though 
the author places it last. The third is that of 
Plautus : — 

Postquam morte datu'st Plautus, comcedia luget ; 
Scena est deserta. dein Risus, Ludu', Jocusque, 
Et numeri innumeri simul omnes collacrumarunt. 

An epitaph written in the year 1506, is perhaps 
too epigrammatic, but has some eloquence : — 

Mors juvenem ferit atque senem discrimine magno, 
Nerape ferit juvenem retro, sed ante senem. 

Ambiguous epitaphs are sometimes the vehicles 
of satire ; as in the following short one, on a rich 
and powerful nobleman : — 

Hie jacet vir amplissimus, 

Another on a hard drinker : — 

Hie jacet Amphora vini, 
i. e. Here lies a tun of wine. 

Epitaph on a physician named Sylvius :-= 

Sylvius hie situs est gratis qui nil dedit unquam^ 
Mortuus et gratis quod legis ista dolel. 

One of the great Erasmus's enemies made s 
spiteful but witless couplet on him, with a plen= 



364 EPITAPHS. 

tiful supply of false quantities ; " Nam nos Bri- 
tones non curamus quantitates syllabarum :" — _- 

Hie jacet Erasmus, qui quondam bonus erat mus. 
Rodere qui solitus, roditur a vermibus. 

Some one attempted to improve it, by substituting 
for bonus, pravus ; but his prosody reached no 
farthers 

The following epigram contains a severe sa- 
tire : — 

Hie jacet Ugo senex, sed qui prius inde recessit, 
Quam scisset cur hoc esset in orbe satus. 

The following is an epitaph on one Master 
Jean le Veau: — 

O Deus omnipotens Vituli miserere Joannis, 
Quern mors prseveniens non sinit esse bovem ! 

Marot has paraphrased it into eight lines. With a 
slight change, it has been applied to one Count 
Vitelli, killed in the civil wars of the Low Coun- 
tries. 

There was a Cordelier at Paris, by name, Pierre 
Qornu, or Come, in Latin, Doctor de Cornibus. This 
person died at Paris in 1542, and was the subject 
of several epitaphs ; among the number the fol- 
lowing macaronic : — 

Faut-il helas, O Doctor optime, 
Qjie vous perdions hisce temporibus, 
Au grand besozn, Doctor egregie, 
Vous nous laissez plenos mceroribus. 



EPITAPHS. 365 

" Imperial Caesar, dead and turned to clay," 
neither stopped a bung-hole, nor patched a wall : 
but he was put to nearly as base a use, when he 
became the subject of the following epitaph : — 

Hie jacet intus 
Carolus Quintuse 
Die pro illo bis aut ter, 
Ave Maria, Pater noster. 



366 



MISCELLANEOUS EPIGRAMS. 



When the pretensions of birth are not immo- 
derately urged, the public are disposed to treat it 
with all due respect. On the other hand, persons 
of low origin, raised to a high station, if they give 
not themselves the airs of aboriginal aristocracy, 
if they shrink not from the remembrance of what 
they once were, will not be painfully reminded of 
it by others. Agathocles, king of the Syracusans, 
was entitled to much credit in that respect. The 
acts of tyranny committed by him were indeed 
atrocious ; but somewhat of the censure attaching 
to his general character is softened, by his re- 
membrance without shame, in his prosperous for- 
tune, that he was the son of a potter. That the 
circumstance might never be absent from his mind, 
as well as in honour of his father's memory, and of 
his own origin, his side-board was set out with 
earthen dishes introduced among the gold and 
silver plate. Ausonius has made this the subject 
of an elegant epigram : — 

Fama est fictilibus coenasse Agathoclea regem, 
Atque abacum Samio saepe onerasse luto. 

Fercula gemmatis quum poneret horrida vasis ; 
Et misceret opes, pauperiemque simul : 



MISCELLANEOUS EPIGRAMS. 367 

Quaerenti causam, respondit : Rex ego qui sum 

Sicanise, figulo sum genitore satus. 
Fortunam reverenter habe, quicunque repente 

Dives ab exili progrediere loco. 

Rabelais is elegantly complimented by Beza, in 
a celebrated epigram among his Juvenilia : — 

Qui sic nugatur, tractantem ut seria vincat, 
Seria cum faciet, die, rogo, quantus erit? 

Barbers were brought to Rome from Sicily by 
Publius Ticinius Mena. For upwards of 400 
years, the ancient Romans never shaved. Lucian 
has an epigram on long beards : — 

Ei to rgstpsiv Traoycova dox.sl§ <ro<pluv Trsgnroieiv, 
Ka) rqocyos 6V7rwyoov ebfo^og If i ilAarwv. 

Philo reasons thus on a foolish old age : — 



A* yoLo ccTsg 
MaXAov twv 7roAXwv elo~)v ovstioc stwv* 



Massinger, in The Old Law, seems to have had 
his eye on Lucian's epigram, in the observations 
of a courtier on the Duke of Epire's proposed 
reformation : — 

It will have heats though, when they see the painting 

Go an inch deep i' the wrinkle, and take up 

A box more than their gossips : but for men, my lord. 

That should be the sole bravery of a palace, 

To walk with hollow eyes and long white beards, 

As if a prince dwelt in a land of goats ; 



368 MISCELLANEOUS EPIGRAMS. 

With clothes as if they sat on their backs on purpose 

To arraign a fashion, and condemn 't to exile ; 

Their pockets in their sleeves, as if they laid 

Their ear to avarice, and heard the devils whisper ! 

Now ours lie downward here close to the flank, 

Right spending pockets, as a son's should be 

That lives i' the fashion; where our diseased fathers, 

Worried with the sciatica and aches, 

Brought up your paned hose first, which ladies laugh'd at, 

Giving no reverence to the place distrain'd : 

They love a doublet that's three hours a buttoning, 

And sits so close makes a man groan again, 

And his soul mutter half a day ; yet these are those 

That carry sway and worth : prick'd up in clothes, 

Why should we fear our rising? 



The value of Martial is to the full as great to the 
classical antiquary, as to the searcher after wit. 
The following passage from one of the epigrams 
states the various uses of the Endromis : — 

Seu lentum ceroma teris, tepidumve trigona, 
Sive harpasta manu pulverulenta rapis : 

Plumea seu laxi partiris pondera follis : 
Sive levem cursu vincere quseris Atham. 

Ne madidos intret penetrabile frigus in artus, 
Neve gravis subita te premat Iris aqua. 

Ridebis ventos hoc munere tectus et imbres. 

Lib. iv. epig. 19. 

Wooden toothpicks, made of the lentisk, were 
preferred to quills by the Romans : — 

Lentiscum melius: sed si tibi frondea cuspis 
Defuerit, dentes penna levare potest. 

Lib. xiv. epig. 22. 



MISCELLANEOUS EPIGRAMS* 369 

The point of honour is sometimes placed on a 
whimsical object. There is an epigram of Lucilius 
in the Anthology, on the subject of one Diophon, 
who being condemned to the punishment of cru- 
cifixion, died of envy at seeing the cross of another 
criminal taller than his own : — 

MoLagorigco fcivgco fuvgovpsvov uKXov kuvTOi 
'O <p§ovspo$ Aio^oov ayybs \dcbv irax>). 

Martial's epigrams on the Saturnalian hospi- 
talities, throw much light on the state of manners, 
and of natural history at this time. In this latter 
respect, they often illustrate Pliny : — 

Mollis in aequorea quae crevit spina Ravenna 
Non erit incultis gratior asparagis. 

Lib. xlii. epig. 21. 

Pliny mentions in more passages than one the 
pleasantness and prolific character of the gardens 
at Ravenna, 

The splendour or plainness of the exterior should 
be proportioned to the much or little worth of the 
interior ; as illustrated by the following epigram on 
an ivory coffer : — 



Hos nisi de flava loculos implere moneta 

ferant 
Lib. xiv. epig. 12. 



Non decet : argentum vilia ligna ferant. 



The vicissitudes of fashion in the arrangement of 
the table are not unhappily touched upon in the 
following question of Martial : — 

Claudere quae coenas lactuca solebat avorum, 
Die mihi, eur nostras inchoat ilia dapes ? 

Lib. xiii. epig. 14,, 
BB 



370 MISCELLANEOUS EPIGRAMS. 

Martial also gives us an account of what was 
called a many-match lamp : — 

Illustrem cum tota meis convivia flammis, 
Totque geram myxas, una lucerna vocor. 

In the thirteenth epigram of Catullus, there is 
much humour in the following description of 
empty-pursed poverty leaving ample room for 
spiders to spin their cobwebs. The poet has 
been furnishing his friend with a copious list of 
requisites, which, if he bring with him, he will be 
sure of a good supper : — 

Hsec si, inquam, attuleris, venuste noster, 
Ccenabis bene ; nam tui Catulli 
Plenus sacculus est aranearum. 

The following allusion to the meat and drink of 
the gods, with their acceptance of more humble 
fare from their sacrirlcers, is in the true spirit of 
epigram, and highly complimentary to the poet's 
friend : — 

Miraris, docto quod carmina mitto Severe, 
Ad coenam quod te, docte Severe, vocem ? 

Jupiter ambrosia satur est, et nectare vivit ; 
Nos tamen exta Jovi cruda, merumque damus. 

Martial* lib. xi. epig. 58. 

Martial, in another epigram, points out a pleasant 
invention of the ancients, in drinking as many 
glasses of wine as there were letters in the names 
of their mistresses. This is the earliest mode of 
toasting ; and the practice served as a comment on 
the sober or Bacchanalian character of the lover. 



MISCELLANEOUS EPIGRAMS. 371 

If he were a lover also of wine, he would of course 
pay his addresses to a lady with a long name. 
What a train of admirers would the Wilhelmina's 
and the Theodosia's have in these our days ! — 

Nsevia sex cyathis, septem Justina bibatur ; 

Quinque Lycas, Lyde quattuor, Ida tribus. 
Omnis ab infiiso numeretur arnica Falerno ; 

Et, quia nulla venit, tu mihi, Somne, veni. 

Some of the commentators, on the word Somne, 
tell us it was the custom of the poets to invoke 
sleep, and instance Ovid and Statius. What of it ? 
there seems no particular point in that, or at least 
a very blunt one. The Delphin editor says, that 
to propitiate sleep, they tossed off the last cup to 
Mercury, as the god presiding over that blessing, 
which Sancho characterises as wrapping a man 
round like a blanket. But this was not a case of 
the last cup. The meaning of the poet seems to 
be, that having no mistress, he will regulate his 
drinking to five cups, the number of letters in the 
word Somne. By this he purposes to declare his 
moderation ; the number being exactly a mean 
between the shortest and the tallest lady toasted 
by the rest of the party. It may also be con- 
sidered, that if any one at table were to attempt to 
force him beyond his stint, and to drink the 
president of sleep by his proper and longer name 
of Mercurius, he would tell them plainly, he had 
rather go to sleep than drink any more. But not 
of his opinion was a modern humourist. In a 
company where the guests took it into their heads 
to revive this ancient custom, he, like Martial, 
having no lady to toast, declared that he would 

B B 2 



8J2 MISCELLANEOUS EPIGRAMS, 

drink to Somnus in the nominative case ; and filled 
six successive bumpers accordingly. 

Eubulus, in Athenaeus, screws down the jollity 
of the wise man at the sticking-place of three 
glasses : — 

T.peig yap povovg xpuTYig&g eyxspavvvco 
Tolg sv <ppovov<ri* tov per vyieag hot, 
"Ov np&TOv sx7rlvov(n. tov $s hvTsgo-v 

"EgQOTOg, yj§0V7)£ T£. TOV Tp'lTOV ^ U7TV0U, 

c, Ov slvmovTsg ol o-o<po) xexXYipsvoi 
OTxaSe j3aS;oD(T4V 6 Ss TSTotgTog o&xsti 
''ApsTegog if', ScK\ y v£geoog, 7refX7rTog &ov\s* 
"EiXTog $e xwikw s^do^og §' vttwkIoqv 
'O ^ oyloog xX^T^gog' 6 §' ivaTog %o\Yig, 
AixctTog Ss [ACLViag, cags xou fitxkkziv 7ro*sT«. 
JloXvg yotg slg h fuxgov kyyeiov %u0£<£ 

T-J7T0O~XZXi^l pejg-jX TOVg 7r£7TWX0T0ig.» 

A Greek proverb fixes, not the stirrup cup* 
but the dozing cup, at either three or live : **•. 

'H 7TEVTS %1v\ Y\ TglCt 7rlv } % [AYJ TSTTCtgCt* 

Tor this alternative, and the accompanying pro- 
hibition, the long established good luck of odd, 
and the bad luck of even numbers, will account. 
Plutarch also discusses this important question. 



373 



MISCELLANEOUS ETYMOLOGIES, AND PECULIAR 
MEANINGS AND USAGES OF WORDS. 



Ihe word prologium is defined in Festus, prin^ 
cipium, proloquium. Pacuvius is given as the 
authority. " Quid est ? nam me examinasti pro^ 
logio tuo." TlqoXoyiov is the diminutive of -srgoXo- 
yo$, as efyhov of Z%oh$. Prologium has been sup- 
posed to be the argument, prologus the spoken* 
introduction to a play : but the fact seems to be, 
that the former was the old word, indicating 
brevity, in time superseded by the latter, generally 
applied without reference to length. We use the 
words Prologue and Preface as the Romans did, 
in modern English : the former for a poetical, the 
latter for a prose introduction : but Shakspeare and 
his contemporaries used Prologue in both senses, 
and for introduction in general. 

The surname of Brutus, which signifies senseless 
or void of reason, was first assumed by the de- 
liverer of Rome, as a shift of policy to cover his 
patriotic design. 

Barbatus signifies bearded. It afterwards ob- 
tained the secondary meaning of simple or silly, iri 
reference to the dotage of grey-beards ; and the 
less offensive sense of old-fashioned, as when the 
kings who governed Rome, as well as their people, 
wore their beards unshorn. 

bb 3 



874 MISCELLANEOUS ETYMOLOGIES, AND PECULIAR 

" Incredibile prope dictu est," says Freigius in 
the life of Ramus, " sed tamen verum, et editis 
libris proditum, in Parisiensi Academia doctores 
extitisse, qui mordicus tuerentur ac defenderent, 
Ego amat, tarn commodam orationem esse, quam 
Ego amo, ad eamque pertinaciam comprimendam 
consilio publico opus fuisse." The Sorbonne and 
the Faculty of Theology at Oxford joined in 
levelling their ecclesiastical thunders against such a 
grammatical heresy. This absurdity, as a general 
doctrine, took its rise from two passages in the 
Hebrew text of the Old Testament, in the pro- 
phecies of Isaiah and Malachi, where the Deity is 
made to speak of himself by the pronoun of the 
first person singular, joined to the verb of the 
third singular, and by the pronoun of the first 
person singular with a noun in the plural number 
in apposition. Our translators have wisely not 
attempted to inoculate this Hebraism on our 
English idiom, if indeed it be a Hebraism. May 
it not be considered as a usage confined to that 
Being in which all persons and all things are com- 
prehended, and in reference to human powers of 
discrimination, confounded? On grounds some- 
what similar, the compilers of our Liturgy have 
chosen to commence the Lord's Prayer, " Our 
Father, which art in heaven," rather than who ; 
a point on which there has been much controversy ; 
but, in my opinion, the rendering of the Liturgy 
has sound judgment on its side. Ego addet, the 
Latin translation of the Hebrew, may be reduced 
to common grammar by considering the phrase as 
strongly elliptical : Ego sum Me ; then, qui addam, 
or, qui addet, will be rendered equally amenable to 
general syntax. Domini ego is rather more stub- 



MEANINGS AND USAGES OF WORDS/ 3*J5 

born, and hardly borne out by the resource of an 
ellipse : but obscurity on an incomprehensible sub- 
ject is not only excusable, but a mode of the 
sublime ; and however difficult, or even impos- 
sible it may be to construe the expression without 
a solecism, its spirit seems tantamount to the as- 
sertion, " There are none other gods but me." 

The phrase, verba dare, is used in a peculiar 
sense, refining on the first and obvious bearing of 
the words, as in the following line of Ovid : — 

Verba dat omnis amor, reperitque alimenta morando. 

The following passage of Ausonius refers to the 
historical origin of the epithet tacitce, applied by 
Virgil to Amyclag. It reminds one of the fable 
and the proverb about calling wolf. The city had 
been so often and so causelessly alarmed by the 
cry, " The enemy is coming," that any such an- 
nouncement was constituted a high crime and 
misdemeanor. The enemy did come; the law 
was duly obeyed, and the city taken : — 

Ac velut CEbaliis habites taciturnus Amyclis, 
Aut tua Sigalion iEgyptius oscula signet, 
Obnixum Pauline taces. 

In the second line Harpocrates is meant, the 
name being etymological, from <riyow and Xeng. 
He is mentioned as a god in connection with Isis 
and Osiris, and was worshipped among the Lares* 
to inculcate the moral, that family secrets ought to 
be kept. 

Macrobius, on Scipio's Dream, lib. ii. cap. 1.* 
endeavours to explain the doctrine of Pythagoras 

b b 4 



376 MISCELLANEOUS ETYMOLOGIES, AND PECULIAR 

respecting the music of the spheres. Here we 
find the rudiments of modern harmonics, and the 
system of concords and discords on arithmetical 
principles : — " Hemiolius est, cum de duobus nu- 
meris major habet totum minorem, et insuper ejus 
medietatem ; ut sunt tria ad duo. nam in tribus 
sunt duo, et media pars eorum, id est, unum. et ex 
hoc numero, qui hemiolius dicitur, nascitur sympno- 
nia, quae appellatur S<a wei/re." Here surely is an 
approach to those arithmetical proportions of first, 
third, and fifth, on which the system of thorough 
bass is founded in modern music as a practical art. 
There seems also, in the passage just quoted, an 
obscure hint of a major and minor key. 

Oscines, Varro tells us 3 are "Avesore et cantu 
auspicium facientes." 

From $oko$, soot, or the black and thick sub- 
stance produced by smoke, comes the adjective 
\J/oXoWe$, as used in the following passage : — "Exa$-ov 

$s TOVTWVf xuluo-XYi^av e\$ T V V Y*l v > o-xyjvttos W0[/,oi£eTOLi. tcuv 5c 
xsQOLVV&v, ol [J,sv ot\§u\oodsig, ^ioKoevTsg XsyovTai' ol §e roc^eoog 
tiOTTOvrsS) u-pyriTss* eh.ix.tou de $ ol ygcipfAoeiBcog (pegopevoi* — — 

Arist. Lib. de Mundo. 

The Greek word yvpog signifies a small mass of 
flesh of a round figure. Hence a frog is called 
yvgtvog at the commencement of its generation, as 
being a shapeless black lump, with no parts dis- 
tinctly indicated but two large eyes and a tail* 
Thus Plato in Theseteto : — f/ Iv« psyuxovs gewoos xa) ttolvu 

x.oiToi<ppovYi1ixcjo$ YjfeuTO Yj[JAV Xeyew* kvdeixvupevog on rj^elg [xev 

UVTOV CJ00-7T£g §S0V 6^OCV[JiOC.^0[X£V £7Tt (TO^'toi, 6 §' uqOL STUy^CiVSV (OV 

e\$ <ppovYjo-iv ouSsv fisXrtcov (5xrgot.%(£u yvgtvov, [xyj on aKXou tod 

*vSga>7raiv We see here why yvgtvoi came to signify, 
in a metaphorical sense, fools and stupid per- 
sons. 



MEANINGS AND USAGES OF WORDS. 377 

There were two Greek words, o-v^oKyj and o-fy,- 
$oXov, both from the same compound verb. The 
Pythagoric symbols were certain pointed and short 
sentences, often obscure and enigmatical, employed 
as means of instruction by Pythagoras. The word 
afterwards came to signify the payment of a per* 
son's scot, or quota of a reckoning, whence our legal 
term of paying scot and lot, meaning parochial 
payments, which give a title to the rights and 
privileges of a parishioner. This compound phrase 
sometimes assumes the proverbial sense of a sound 
drubbing : as when Falstaff says, that if he had not 
counterfeited, that hot termagant Scot would have 
paid him scot and lot too. In the following pas- 
sage symbola, not symbolum, is used for a reckon- 
ing :— 

Phaedrum, aut Cliniam 
Dicebant, aut Niceratum ; nam hi tres turn simul 
Amabant. " Eho ! quid Pamphilus ?" " Quid ? symbolam 
Dedit; coenavit." Gaudebam. 

Terent.-in Andria* 

Pamphilus supped, and paid his reckoning. The 
word is used in another sense for a badge, or ral- 
lying point, for persons of the same party ; con- 
formably to which, it is applied to regimental colours, 
to a royal or national standard. ^v^oXyj also, but not 
(tu^oKov, takes the signification of a conference or par- 
ley, and of comparison. It is also synonymous with 
a type, in the scriptural sense of the latter word. 

The goddesses presiding over fate and fortune 
are etymologised by Pomp. Festus in the follow- 
ing terms : — " Tenitae credebantur esse sortium 
deae, dictse quod tenendi haberent potestatem."— 
Lib. xviiL 



S78 MEANINGS AND USAGES OF WORDS. 

The Tubilustria was the day of benediction at 
Rome for the trumpets dedicated to sacrifices: — 
" Tubilustria dies appellabant in quibus agna tubas 
lustrabant. Tubilustria quibus diebus adscriptum 
in fastis est, cum in atrio sutorio agna tubag lustran- 
tur, ab eis tubos appellant, quod genus lustrationis 
ex Arcadia Pallanteo transvectum esse dicunt." — 
Pomp. Fest. 

Proxima Vulcani lux es ; Tubilustria dicunt : 
Lustrantur purae, quas facit ille, tubae. 

Ovid. Fast. lib. v. 



379 



MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES FROM HORACE. 



Ut pictura, poesis ; erit quae, si propius stes, 
Te capiat magis ; et quaedam, si longius abstes. 
Haec amat obscurum ; volet haec sub luce videri, 
Judicis argutum quae non formidat acumen : 
Haec placuit semel ; haec decies repetita placebit. 

De Arte Poetica* 

1 his analogy between poetry and painting is just* 
and judiciously stated. Effects in either can only 
be produced by a just distribution of light and 
shade. A painter who shall paint in a strong light 
what is only adapted to a faint one, will be unable 
to place the spectator at any point of view, at which 
either the proportions of symmetry or the grada- 
tions of perspective will meet the eye aright. So 
is it with a poem ; some parts of which are de- 
signed for a full light, others to fall into a gradu- 
ated obscurity. The principle applies to the finish- 
ing of figures, as well as to perspective and chiaro 
scuro. A judicious painter will execute the principal 
and the subordinate parts with different degrees of 
care : the former will be given in full and exact 
proportion, with all the mastery of drawing ; the 
most remote and least important among the latter 
will rather be indicated than made out. In like 
manner, the poet will sketch minor objects slightly * 
and leave them in a subdued tone of colouring, that 
the reader may relax from the earnestness of his 



380 MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES 

gaze, and recruit his attention for the more promi- 
nent features of the work. Uniform grace in a 
picture, or unrelenting brilliancy of thoughts and 
expressions in a poem, will in the end reduce the 
too highly stimulated admirer to a condition little 
short of a critical gutta serena. Cicero has ap- 
plied the same principle of gradation to oratory : — 
" Quamquam ilia ipsa exclamatio, N on potest metius, 
sit velim crebra ; sed habeat tamen ilia in dicendo 
admiratio ac summa laus umbram aliquam et reces- 
sum, quo magis id, quod erit illuminatum, extare 
atque eminere videatur." — De Oratore, lib. iii. 

Sic Jovis interest 
Optatis epulis impiger Hercules ; 
Clarum Tyndaridae sidus ab infimis 
Quassas eripiunt sequoribus rates ; 
Ornatus viridi tempora pampino 
Liber vota bonos ducit ad exitus. 

Carmin. lib. iv. od. 8. 

The life of the gods, denominated apotheosis, 
when conferred on mortals, was distinguished by 
two especial privileges : the one, that of sitting at 
the table of Jupiter ; the other, the marriage of 
some goddess. ' Horace was indebted to Homer, 
in the eleventh book of the Odyssey, for the 
hint of Hercules enjoying the 1 former privilege of 
divinity; and being a notoriously huge feeder* 
he of course made the most of his free quar- 
ters : but he does not notice his investment with 
the latter on the part of Homer, who gives him 
Hebe, the goddess of youth, for a wife : neither 
does he touch upon that curious opinion of the an- 
cients, respecting the threefold partition of man 
after death : the body of Hercules was consumed 



FROM HORACE. 381 

in the flames ; his image conversed with Ulysses in 
the shades below ; while his soul was domesticated 
in the heavenly mansions and society. 

There is much humour, both in the ideas and 
the expression of the following passages : — 

Aurem substringe loquaci. 
Importunus amat laudari ? donee, ohe jam ! 
Adccelum manibus sublatis dixerit, urge, et 
Crescentem tumidis infla sermonibus utrem. 

The bustling incidents of a journey, the confu- 
sion and clamour of going by water, are no where 
more pleasantly described than in the narrative of 
the poet's peregrination to Brundisium. The boat- 
men required payment from the passengers on 
entrance : — 

Hue appelle : trecentos inseris : ohe ! 
Jam satis est. Dum aes exigitur, dum mula ligatur, 
Tota abit hora. Satir. lib. i. sat. 5. 

Sanadon instances the following passage as an 
example of modesty unusual among poets ; any 
man but a Frenchman would consider it to be an 
ebullition of vanity. Si placeo, on which he lays 
stress, is but the " butter- woman's rank to mar- 
ket" of humility : — 

O testudinis aureae 

Dulcem quae strepitum, Pieri, temperas; 
. O mutis quoque piscibus 

Donatura eyeni, si libeat, sonum : 
Totum muneris hoc tui est, 

Quod monstror digito praetereuntium 
Romanae fidicen lyrae. 

Quod spiro, et placeo, si placeo, tuum est. 

Carmin. lib. iv. od. 3. 



382 MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES 

He speaks of himself more pleasingly in the 
fourth ode of the third book, where he acknow- 
ledges that he owes his life to the muses, and 
alludes to his own unmilitary flight from battle : — 

Vestris amicum fontibus, et choris 
Non me Philippis versa acies retro, 
Devota non extinxit arbor, 
Nee Sicula Palinurus unda. 

Although the slipshod style be the character- 
istic of Horace's hexameters, he occasionly shows 
by a line of much rythm and beauty, that his will, 
and not his poverty, consents to ramble abroad in 
an undress. Take as an example of this the last 
line of the following passage from the second epis- 
tle of the first book : — 

Nos numerus sumus, et fruges consumere nati, 
Sponsi Penelopae, nebulones, AlcinoVque 
In cute curanda plus aequo operata juventus ; 
Cui pulchrum fuit in medios dormire dies, et 
Ad strep itum citharae cessatum ducere curam. 

Nothing can be more unhappy than Dr. Bentley's 
reading for cessatum ducere curam, of cessantem 
ducere somnum : nor more tasteless and injudicious 
than Sanadon's admission of it into the text. 

The island of Corfu, in the mouth of the gulf 
of Venice, constituted the kingdom of Alcinous. 
This account of the sloth and effeminacy in which 
the youth of that coast were sunk is taken from 
the eighth book of the Odyssey. Alcinous him- 
self gives them the following character : — 

Aie» 8' >jjU,7v $a»$ ts <p*%j,. xlQa.(>l§ ts, %OQoi re, 



FROM HORACE. 383 

A passage in Horace's fourteenth epistle ap- 
proaches in some degree to the caustic severity of 
Juvenal, in describing the distaste a debauched 
town life engenders for the simple and moral 
pleasures of the country ; — 

Fornix tibi et uncta popina 
Incutiunt urbis desiderium, video ; et quod 
Angulus iste feret piper ac thus ocius uva ; 
Nee vicina subest vinum praebere taberna 
Quae possit tibi; nee meretrix tibicina, cujus 
Ad strepitum salias terra? gravis. 

The following passage aptly illustrates the neces- 
sity of congenial genius, or at all events of refined 
taste, to render imitation respectable. The com- 
mon herd of imitators are incapable of appreci- 
ating the real merits of their models, and therefore 
generally run foul of every fault and every defect, 
but steer clear of the beauty and excellence. — 

Quid ? si quis vultu torvo ferus, et pede nudo, 
Exiguaeque togas simulet textore Catonem, 
Virtutemne repraesentet moresque Catonis ? 
Rupit Hiarbitam Timagenis aemula lingua, 
Dum studet urbanus, tenditque disertus haberi. 

The sixteenth ode of the third book opens with 
a moral satire against avarice, holding out riches 
as the greatest evil, and an honest and contented 
mediocrity as the greatest good. But this is not, 
as has been stated, the whole design. By a delicate 
transition from generalities to personal application, 
he instances himself as an example of moderation, 
and his patron of generosity. Maecenas had pre- 
sented him with a small country seat ; and he pro- 
fesses to be as much gratified as if he had been 
made governor of a province. — 



38i< MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES 

Inelusam Danaen turris ahenea, 
Robustaeque fores, et vigilum canum 
Tristes excubiae munierant satis 
Nocturnis ab adulteris ; 
Si non Acrisium virginis abditae 
Custodem pavidum Jupiter et Venus 

Risissent : fore enim tutum iter et patens, 
Converso in pretium Deo. 

The story of Acrisius, the last king of Argos, 
who being warned by an oracle that he should 
be deprived of his kingdom, and put to death by 
his grandson, resolved, if possible, to hinder his 
daughter Danae from having any children, and 
thus prevent the accomplishment of the oracle, is 
beautifully told. Robustus signifies made of oak. 
Robust eus is used by Varro and Vitruvius : robo- 
reus by Columella and Ovid : roburneus by Co- 
lumella. The Latins used adulter simply for a 
lover. The opposition of character is beautifully 
managed, and Acrisius' s conduct and motives com- 
prised in the single epithet pavidum. Horace fol- 
lows the common and ancient opinion, that Ju- 
piter transformed himself into a shower of gold. 

The character of Tigellius is among Horace's 
most happy and brilliant delineations. The affect- 
ation of intimacy with persons of royal and noble 
rank, founded on casual contact in public or mixed 
company, is not unknown to modern times : — 

Modo reges atque tetrarchas, 
Omnia magna loquens ; modo ; Sit mihi mensa tripes et 
Concha salis puri, et toga quae defendere frigus 
Quamvis crassa queat. Decies centena dedisses 
Huic parvo, paucis contento ; quinque diebus 
Nil erat in loculis. 



FROM HORACE. 385 

The table with three feet is the emblem of an- 
cient frugality. No other was known till after 
the introduction of Asiatic luxury: but when 
tables with four feet like our own were once 
introduced, none but the lower classes of the 
people would use those of the antiquated form. 
The mention of the concha salts puri is a happy 
stroke at Tigellius's alternate adoption of extreme 
rusticity. The superstition attaching to salt through- 
out the ancient world, and in all half-civilised 
countries, is remarkable. Selden tells us, "that 
the old Gauls (whose customs and the British were 
near the same) had their orbicular tables to avoid 
controversy of precedency, a form much com- 
mended by a late writer for the like distance of all 
from the salt, being centre, first, and last, of the 
furniture." * We are to infer from this, that our 
British ancestors placed a vessel in the middle of 
their round table, filled with a sufficient quantity 
of salt to serve the whole company ; we may sup- 
pose that the vessel was considerably ornamented, 
probably bearing some resemblance to our modern 
epergne. So the Romans had their salinum, form-: 
ing a leading feature in their laws of hospitality. 
To do an injury to any one with whom they had 
partaken of salt was a crime against religion, and 
required a peculiar expiation. But Tigellius was; 
satisfied with a mere shell, to hold as much salt as 
he could himself consume, and professed not to 



* In compliance with popular superstition, it was an ancient 
custom to place a quantity of salt on the breast of a corpse. 
Salt also entered into the composition of an oath: — " He took 
bread and salt by this light, that he would never open his lips." 
— The Honest Whore, Act 5. Scene 12. 

c c 



386 MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES 

aim at that more stately furniture, which would 
have been necessary for the reception of guests. 

The Roman reckoning by sesterces was ex- 
tremely troublesome. Decies centena means decies 
centena millia. Another expression was, decies 
millia : sometimes decies alone, or decies sestercium. 
The lesser sesterce was twopence all but half a 
farthing of our money. This makes the reduction 
of a large sum to our denominations a delicate 
operation in arithmetic. A million of sesterces 
amounted to 7812/. 10s. 

Horace's courtly principles are evinced in the 
following line : — 

Principibus placuisse viris, non ultima laus est. 

Epist. lib. i. ep. 17. 

Horrida tempestas coelum contraxit ; et imbres 
Nivesque deducunt Jovem. 

In this little piece, nothing can be more pleasant 
than the manner in which Epicurean suggestions 
are delivered with all the pomp and gravity of the 
Stoic school. The real drift seems to be, con- 
dolence with some friend on a reverse of fortune. 
The preceptor of Achilles is introduced as deliver- 
ing the oracles of wisdom to his pupil, which far 
from being the lecture of a pedagogue, turn out to 
be an invitation to reflect on the shortness of life, 
not for the purpose of enhancing care, but of ex- 
pelling it by music, wine, and company. 

Horace speaks with indignation of the effeminacy 
prevalent in the camp of Antony and Cleopatra : 
and its effect in occasioning the desertion of the 
Gallograeci : — 



FROM HORACE. 387 

Interque signa turpe militaria 

Sol aspicit conopeum. 
Ad hoc frementes verterant bis mille equos 

Galli, canentes Caesarem; 
Hostiliumque navium portu latent 

Puppes sinistrorsum sitae. 

The KwvcoTTsiov was a sort of tent-bed, in common 
use with the Egyptians as a protection against 
mosquitos, from the Greek xwvawrsj, in Latin culices ; 
but queens and princesses were very splendid and 
luxurious in the furniture of those beds. 

The following protest in the Art of Poetry, 
against destroying the probability of dramatic re- 
presentation by the introduction of such chimaeras 
as nurses and foolish mothers frighten children 
with, is well pointed by the spectre which was 
supposed after seducing to devour young persons, 
and derived its name from the Greek \otipo$ 9 mean- 
ing the gullet or gluttony : — ■ 

Ficta voluptatis causa sint proxima veris ; 

Ne, quodcunque volet, poscat sibi fabula credi ; 

Nee pransae Lamiae vivum puerum extrahat alvo. 

Horace seems to think that who drives fat oxen 
must himself be fat , and that Homer and Ennius 
must have acquired gout as well as fame by their 
praises of wine : — 

Laudibus arguitur vini vinosus Homerus. 
Ennius ipse pater nunquam nisi potus ad arma 
Prosiluit dicenda. Epist, lib. L ep. 1 9. 



cc^ 



888 



MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES FROM JUVENAL. 



Proximus ejusdem properabat Acilius aevi 
Cum juvene indigno, quern mors tarn saeva maneret, 
Et domini gladiis jam festinata: sed olim 
," Prodigio par est in nobilitate senectus: 
Unde fit, ut malim fraterculus esse gigantum. 
Profuit ergo nihil misero, quod cominus ursos 
Figebat Numidas, Albana nudus arena 
Venator : quis enim jam non intelligat artes 
Patricias ? quis priscum illud miretur acumen, 
Brute, tuum ? facile est barbato imponere regi. 

Sat. iv. 

The Acilius here mentioned was Acilius Glabrio, 
of whom little is known, but that he was a senator 
of singular prudence and fidelity. The victim of 
Domitian's cruelty, alluded to in the following 
lines, is supposed by some of the commentators, 
and most of the translators, to have been Domitius, 
the son of Acilius. They were both charged with 
designs against the emperor, and condemned to 
death. The father's sentence was changed into 
banishment, with a show of mercy, substantially 
designed as an aggravation, that at the advanced 
age of eighty, when a good man is prepared to die, 
he might linger out some superfluous days in the 
remembrance of his son's undeserved suffering for 
treason, which, like his own, amounted probably to 



MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES FROM JUVENAL. 389- 

no more than a suspicion of virtue. Whether they 
were father and son or not, the young man had 
imitated the well-known trick of the elder Brutus, 
in feigning fatuity. When Domitian celebrated 
his annual games at Alba, in honour of Minerva, 
this youth fought naked with wild beasts in the 
amphitheatre : but Domitian was not to be de- 
ceived by such affectation of insanity ; and sent 
him to execution with circumstances of extreme 
cruelty, and under various methods of torture. 
But Juvenal's allusions are so slight, that sometimes 
we cannot trace the facts in what remains of his- 
tory ; and, at other times, the innuendo seems to 
admit of more than one application. At the 
Quinquatria, Domitian was in the habit of ex- 
hibiting pairs of noblemen in combat with wild 
beasts on the stage. If they conquered, it was 
imputed as a crime. Dio relates either this, or a 
similar story. The impiety charged on so many 
appears to have been a propensity to what he calls 
Judaism, which the Romans continually confounded 
with Christianity : — c T<p' \$ xa) aWoi 1$ to. t&v ioOSa/cov 

tj0>) e%oxe\\ovTS$ ttoXKo) xa.Tsdixa.cr Syr oiv . . . tov 8s Syj r\tx§glooTot 
tov [j,stoL tov T^aVavou ug^otVTU, xaTYiyogrjSsvTot tu ts aAXa, xcd 
old ol 7roAAo», xcci on xou §Y)gloi$ s[xa^sT0, anexTsivsV' Thus 

djd Domitian sport with the lives of his subjects. 
But the practice of cutting off the nobility, from 
jealousy, fear, or hatred, had prevailed from the 
days of Nero : so that the poet professes, he would 
prefer being a Terrce Jilius and a squab brother of 
the giants, to a descent from the most illustrious 
families. The fabulous sons of Titan and Tellus 
rebelled and fought against Jupiter ; but even that 
hazard is not equal to standing up against the 
overwhelming power of Domitian. Neither was 



890 MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES 

he to be cajoled by the stratagem of playing the 
fool, like Tarquin the Proud. Domitius had mis- 
carried in the policy, which had saved Lucius 
Junius Brutus, when his brother and many of the 
nobility had been destroyed. David had recourse 
to a similar device at the court of Achish, king of 
Gath, 

Juvenal professes a wish to leave Rome, and 
banish himself to the most inhospitable regions, 
rather than hear hypocrites preach morality : — 



Ultra Sauromatas fugere hinc libet, et glacialem 
Oceanum 5 quoties aliquid de moribus audent 
Qui Curios simulant, et Bacchanalia vivunt. 

Sat. ii, 



The Sauromatae were the people of Asiatic and 
European Sarmatia, the Asiatic Sauromatas being 
the inhabitants of modern Tartary, the European 
those of modern Russia. 

In the following very spirited passage of Lucan, 
the Northern Ocean, which was perpetually frozen, 
is called the Scythian Sea, as washing the shores 
of Scythia : — ■ 

Quis furor, o cives ? quae tanta licentia ferri, 
Gentibus invisis Latium praebere cruorem ? 
Cumque superba foret Babylon spolianda tropaeis 
Ausoniis, umbraque erraret Crassus inulta ; 
Bella geri placuit nullos habitura triumphos ? 
Heu ! quantum terrae potuit, pelagique, parari 
Hoc, quem civiles hauserunt, sanguine, dextrae ! 
Unde venit Titan, et nox ubi sidera condit, 
Quaque dies medius flagrantibus aestuat horis, 
"Et qua bruma rigens, ac nescia vere remitti. 



FROM JUVENAL, 391 

Adstringit Scythicum glaciali frigore pontum. 
Sub juga jam Seres, jam barbarus isset Araxes, 
Et gens si qua jacet nascenti conscia Nilo. 

The popular characters of Heraclitus, and De« 
mocritus, as the weeping and laughing philosophers, 
though a vulgar error, were particularly well 
suited to the purposes of moral satire, and are 
admirably handled by Juvenal : — 

Jamne igitur laudas, quod de sapientibus alter 
Ridebat, quoties a limine moverat unum 
Protuleratque pedem : flebat contrarius alter ? 
Sed facilis cuivis rigidi censura cachinni : 
Mirandum est, unde ille oculis suffecerit humor* 
Perpetuo risu pulmonem agitare solebat 
Democritus, quanquam non essent urbibus illis 
Praetexta, et trabeae, fasces, lectica, tribunal. 
Quid, si vidisset Prastorem in curribus altis 
Extantem, et medio sublimem in pulvere circi, 
In tunica Jovis, et pictae Sarrana ferentem 
Ex humeris aulaea togae, magnaeque coronae 
Tantum orbem, quanto cervix non sufficit ulla? 
Quippe tenet sudans hanc publicus, et sibi Consul 
Ne placeat, curru servus portatur eodem. 
Da nunc et volucrem sceptro quae surgit eburno, 
Illinc cornicines, hinc prascedentia longi 
Agminis officia, et niveos ad fraana Quirites, 
Defossa in locuiis quos sportula fecit amicos. 
Tunc quoque materiam risus invenit ad omnes 
Occursus hominum ; cujus prudentia monstrat, 
Summos posse viros, et magna exempla daturos, 
Vervecum in patria, crassoque sub aere nascL 

The Thracian Abdera, and Bceotia in genera!, 
laboured considerably under the stigma of stu- 
pidity, although Bceotia was in some measure 

cc4< 



3Q& MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES 

redeemed from the general censure by the indi- 
vidual greatness of Pindar. Still however, Abdera 
was called the country of sheep, and Bceotia that 
of hogs. We also indulge occasionally in aca- 
demical nicknames to particular colleges. 

The satire on the various official ensigns, the 
fopperies of augural appendages, the patrician and 
consular robes, and the pompous display of the 
praetor as presiding at the Circensian Games fur- 
nishes as fine a specimen of the serious and severe 
style of invective, as any to be found in the works 
of this indignant poet. 

The following irony on the superstitions of my- 
thology, and particularly on the fable of Prome- 
theus, and the sarcastic indignation expressed 
against the cruelties and unnatural practices occa- 
sioned by bigotry, are among the very striking 
passages of the author : — 

Hinc gaudere libet, quod non violaverit ignem, 
Quem summa coeli raptum de parte Prometheus 
Don^vit terris : elemento gratulor, et te 
Exsultare reor : sed qui mordere cadaver 
Sustinuit, nihil unquam hac carne libentius edit : 
Nam scelere in tanto ne quaeras, aut dubites, an 
Prima voluptatem gula senserit : ultimus autem 
Qui stetit absumpto jam toto corpore, ductis 
Per terram digitis, aliquid de sanguine gustat. 
Vascones (ut fama est) alimentis talibus usi 
Produxere animas : sed res diversa : sed illic 
Fortunae invidia est, bellorumque ultima, casus 
Extremi, longae dira obsidionis egestas. 
Hujus enim, quod nunc agitur, miserabile debet 
Exemplum esse cibi. Sat. .1 5. 

The contrast in the case of the Vascons, who 
sustained a siege from Cn. Pompey and Metellus, 



FROM JUVENAL. SQS 

and were driven by the pressure of famine to eat 
human flesh, is well introduced, to show that the 
rage of the satirist is not so indiscriminate, as to 
confound the cravings of nature with the wanton- 
ness of barbarous and unnatural appetite. But 
among all the superstitions of Rome, none had 
more completely taken possession of the popular 
mind, than the belief in astrology. It has indeed 
been the most universal and enduring of all cre- 
dulous follies, and more or less occupies the vulgar 
even in these enlightened times. Women have 
always been peculiarly prone to a belief in the 
influence of the stars. Juvenal therefore takes up 
the subject in satire vi. which is devoted to the 
reprehension of female vices and weaknesses : — 

Praecipuus tamen est horum, qui saepius exul, 

Cujus amicitia, conducendaque tabella 

Magnus ferns obit, et formidatus Othoni. 

Inde fides arti, sonuit si dextera ferro 

Laevaque, si longo castrorum in carcere man sit. 

Nemo mathematicus genium indemnatus habebitj 

Sed qui pene perit : cui vix in Cyclada mitti 

Contigit, et parva tandem caruisse Seripho. 

Consulit ictericae lento de funere matris, 

Ante tamen de te, Tanaquil tua ; quando sororem 

Efferat, et patruos : an sit victurus adulter 

Post ipsam : quid enim majus dare numina possunt ? 

Haec tamen ignorat, quid sidus triste minetur 

Saturni ; quo laeta Venus se proferat astro ; 

Qui mensis damno, quae dentur tempora lucro. 

Illius occursus etiam vitare memento, 

In cujus manibus, ceu pinguia succina, tritas 

Cernis ephemeridas ; quae nullum consulit, et jam 

Consulitur ; quae castra viro patriamque petente, 

Non ibit pariter, numeris revocata Thrasylli. 

Ad primum lapidem vectari cum placet, hora 



394f MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES 

Sumitur ex libro ; si prurit frictus ocelli 
Angulus, inspecta genesi collyria poscit. 
iEgra licet jaceat, capiendo nulla videtur 
Aptior hora cibo, nisi quam dederit Petosiris. 

Petosiris is mentioned by Suidas under the re- 
spectable title of a philosopher. It is a common 
proverb, that extremes meet : and its truth is 
strikingly exemplified in the fate of the mathe- 
matical sciences. It might have been supposed 
that their severity, and the strictness of proof 
required by them, would have operated as a pro- 
hibition against wild and irregular fancies : yet we 
find that the extravagant pursuit of truth itself 
leads to error ; a result which also takes place in 
the enthusiastic study of religion. The mathema- 
ticians of the middle ages, and still lower, were all 
astrologers, though the lower class of astrologers 
probably were not mathematicians. To such an 
excess was this pretended science carried, that not 
only were the leading secrets of men's lives pre- 
dieted, but the practising physicians prescribed 
with reference to them ; and the stars were con- 
sulted to ascertain the propitious hour, at which the 
patient was to take a fresh egg or a basin of soup. 

The following caution against such a course of 
conduct as shall make a man dependent on the 
secrecy of others, especially of mean persons and 
menials, is given with profound knowledge of the 
world : — 

Illos ergo roges, quicquid paulo ante petebas 
A nobis. Taceant illi, sed prodere malunt 
Arcanum, quam subrepti potare Falerni, 
Pro populo faciens quantum Laufella bibebat. 
Vivendum recte, cum propter plurima, turn his 



FROM JUVENAL. 39^ 

Prsecipue causis, ut linguas mancipiorum 
Contemnas : nam lingua mali pars pessima servi. 
Deterior tamen hie, qui liber non erit, illis 
Quorum animas et farre suo custodit, et aere. 

Sat. ix. 

This satire has been severely condemned for its 
subject, which is indeed thoroughly disgusting ; 
but the mode in which that disgusting subject has 
been treated, is ably vindicated by Mr. GifFord in 
the argument to his translation of it, against the 
sweeping censure of Julius Scaliger and others. 
Scaliger is indeed so indiscriminate as to propose 
the rejection of all Juvenal's works, including the 
moral tenth satire, on account of this proscribed 
subject. But surely this is carrying delicacy and 
refinement to extravagance; and comes too near 
to what an ancient friend of mine once charac- 
terised as the temper of the present age ; to be 
more shocked at strong language than at bad 
actions. Mr. Gifford has vindicated his author 
both by reasoning, and by translating him ; and 
my friend Mr. Hodgson, though he could have 
been better pleased to omit it altogether, has 
executed his task with perfect decency, and yet 
with strong impression. There are certainly many 
passages in this satire which one would not quote ;■ 
but there are many also, the suppression of which 
would lessen the stock of useful moral repro- 
bation. Mr. Hodgson in his argument quotes one 
passage as a beautiful example of musical cadence 5 
and refers to the elegant complaint of the short- 
ness of youth. In fact, the offensive passages occur 
principally in Naevolus's part of the dialogue ; and 
I would add the following lines in the opening of 



896 MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES FROM JUVENAL. 

the satire, as a characteristic specimen of the poet, 
to the lines just quoted by myself, and to the 
passages referred to by the translator : — 

Omnia nunc contra : vultus gravis, horrida siccae 
Sylva comae ; nullus tota nitor in cute, qualem 
Praestabat calidi circumlita fascia visci ; 
Sed fruticante pilo neglecta et squallida crura. 

Sat. ix. 



397 



MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES FROM VIRGIL. 



V irgil concludes his fourth eclogue, with calling 
upon the child to distinguish his mother by her 
smiles ; because those children, on whom their 
parents did not smile at their birth, were accounted 
unfortunate : — 

Incipe, parve puer, risu cognoscere matrem : 
Matri longa decern tulerunt fastidia menses. 
Incipe, parve puer : cui non risere parentes, 
Nee Deus hunc mensa, Dea nee dignata cubili est. 

The commentators are not all agreed, whether 
the poet means that the child should know its 
mother by her smiling on him, or that he should 
recognise his mother by smiling on her. The two 
last of the four lines can only accord with the for- 
mer sense. Servius is rather inconsistent on the 
subject. He seems to consider this passage as in- 
volving an interchange of smiles. The passage of 
Catullus, In Nuptias Julice et Manlii, represents the 
smiles of infants very pleasingly, but at a more 
advanced period : — 

Torquatus, volo, parvulus 
Matris e gremio suae 
Porrigens teneras manus, 
Dulce rideat ad patrem, 
Semihiante labello. 



398 MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES 

Pliny thus speculates on the subject : — " Ho- 
minem tantum nudum et in nuda humo, natali die 
abjicit ad vagitus statim et ploratum, nullumque 
tot animalium aliud ad lacrymas, et has protinus 
vitge principio. At hercules risus, praecox ille et 
celerrimus, ante quadragesimum diem nulli datur." 
The same author states a whimsical exception to 
his general rule, with what he seems to consider as 
a physical cause for it, in the instance of a great 
philosopher: — "Risisse eodem die, quo genitus esset 
unum hominem accepimus Zoroastrem. Eidem 
cerebrum ita palpitasse, ut impositam repelleret ma- 
num, futurae praesagio scientiae." 

In St. John's gospel there is a beautiful descrip- 
tion of the maternal feeling : — " A woman when 
she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is 
come : but as soon as she is delivered of the child, 
she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that 
a man is born into the world." 

Another objection to the application of the 
smiling to the child, is the strained sense it forces 
on cognoscere, to own by smiles, which, on every 
principle of compounding prepositions with verbs, 
should have been expressed by agnoscere. 

Servius has an absurd explanatory note on decern 
menses, inferring from the expression that males 
are born in the tenth month, females in the 
ninth. But the difference between lunar and 
calendar months will justify the number generally 
without having recourse to a distinction so trifling, 
and so entirely unfounded in truth. Pliny states 
the variations even of the lunar month. The pas- 
sage is worth giving at length, as illustrative of 
his astronomical notions : — " Proxima ergo cardini, 
ideoque minimo ambitu, vicenis diebus septenisque, 



FROM VIRGIL. 399 

et tertia diei parte peragit spatia eadem, quae Sa- 
turni sidus altissimum triginta (ut dictum est) an- 
nis. Deinde morata in coitu Solis biduo, cum 
tardissime e tricesima luce rursus ad easdem vices 
exit : haud scio an omnium, quae in ccelo pernosci 
potuerunt, magistra : In duodecim mensium spatia 
oportere dividi annum, quando ipsa toties Solem 
redeuntem ad principia, consequitur. Solis fulgore 
reliqua siderum regi, siquidem in toto mutuata 
ab eo luce fulgere, qualem in repercussu aquae voli- 
tare conspicimus : ideo molliore et imperfecta vi 
solvere tantum humorem, atque etiam augere, quern 
Solis radii absumant : Ideo et inaequali lumine 
aspici: quia ex adverso demum plena, reliquis diebus 
tantum ex se terris ostendat, quantum ex Sole ipsa 
concipiat : In coitu quidem non cerni : quoniam 
haustum omnem lucis aversa illo regerat, unde acce- 
perit : Sidera vero haud dubie humore terreno pa- 
sci, quia orbe dimidio nonnumquam maculosa cer- 
natur, scilicet nondum suppetente ad haurieudum 
ultra justa vi : maculas enim non aliud esse quam 
terrae raptas cum humore sordes : Defectus autem 
suos, et Solis, rem in tota contemplatione naturae 
maxime miram, et ostento similem, eorum magni- 
tudinum, umbraeque indices exsistere." 

The same author gives the opinion of his age 
respecting the indefinite periods of human partu- 
rition : — " Ceteris animantibus statum et pariendi 
et partus gerendi temp us est : homo toto anno, et 
incerto gignitur spatio. Alius septimo mense, alius 
octavo, et usque ad initia decimi undecimique. 
Ante septimum mensem haud unquam vitalis 
est." 

In another place he gives an individual instance 
of this uncertainty: — "Vestilia C. Herdicii, ac 



400 MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES 

postea Pomponii, atque Orfiti clarissimorum ci- 
vium conjux, ex his quatuor partus enixa, septimo 
semper mense, genuit Suilium Rufum undecimo, 
Corbulonem septimo, utrumque Consulem : postea 
Cassoniam Caii principis conjugem, octavo." 

Ovid, in the third book of his Fasti, accounts 
for the division of the old year in reference to this 
calculation, without any distinction of male or 
female : — 

Annus erat ; decimum cum Luna repleverat orbem. 

Hie numerus magno tunc in honore fuit. 
Seu quia tot digiti, per quos numerare solemus : 

Seu quia bis quino femina mense parit. 

Servins says, that in the passage of Virgil, some 
read abstulerint, making the sense, Si riseris, abs- 
tulerint decern menses matri tuce longa fastidia : 
but other commentators justly think that interpret- 
ation ridiculous. 

Qui is used by some editors for cui, on the au- 
thority of Quinctilian : — " Est figura et in nume- 
ro : vel cum singulari pluralis subjungitur, Gladio 
pugnacissima gens Romani : gens enim ex multis : 
vel e diverso, 

Qui non risere parentes, 
Nee deus hunc mensa, dea nee dignata cubili est. 

Ex illis enim, qui non risere, hunc non dignatus 
deus, nee dea dignata." 

The testimony of Quinctilian therefore, in adopt- 
ing this reading, goes to the sense, those who have 
not smiled on their parents, with the additional 
harshness of considering hunc as used for hos. 
Ruaeus also considers the passage as a denunci- 
ation of some imminent calamity to the child, if 



FROM VIRGIL. 401 

he know not his mother by a smile. An additional 
proof that this is not the right sense is derived 
from the use of the dative case after the same verb 
in the following passage of the fifth ^Eneid : — 

Risit pater optimus olli, 
Et clypeum efferri jussit, Didymaonis artes, 
Neptuni, sacro Danai's, de poste refixum : 
Hoc juvenem egregium praestanti munere donat. 

The most approved meaning is this : — " Begin 
sweet boy to know thy parents by their smile ; for 
thy parents must smile upon thee before thou 
canst be advanced to the life of the gods." A 
preceding passage confirms this : — 

Ille Deum vitam accipiet, Divisque videbit 
Permistos heroas, et ipse videbitur illis ; 
Pacatumque reget patriis virtutibus orbem. 

Bucol, eel. iv* 

He elsewhere expresses the employments of im- 
mortality in a most spirited and beautiful manner, 
and makes it the vehicle of a highly wrought com- 
pliment to Augustus : — 

Tuque adeo, quern mox quae sint habitura Deorum 
Concilia,, incertum est ; urbisne invisere, Caesar, 
Terrarumque velis curam, et te maximus orbis 
Auctorem frugum, tempestatumque potentem 
Accipiat, cingens materna tempora myrto ; 
An Deus immensi venias maris, ac tua nautae 
Nutnina sola colant ; tibi serviat ultima Thule, 
Teque sibi generum Tethys emat omnibus undis ; 
Anne novum tardis sidus te mensibus addas, 
Qua locus Erigonen inter Chelasque sequentes 
Panditur : ipse tibi jam brachia contrahit ardens 
Scorpius, et cceli justa plus parte reliquit. 

Georg. lib. i. 

D D 



402 MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES 

Sunt quibus ad portas cecidit custodia sorti : 
Inque vicem speculantur aquas et nubila coeli; 
Aut onera accipiunt venientum ; aut agmine facto, 
Ignavum fucos pecus a praesepibus arcent. 
Fervet opus, redolentque thymo fragrantia mella. 

Georg. lib. iv. 



In one of the Arundelian manuscripts, for por- 
tas cecidit, is read portam tendit. The three last 
lines of this passage are repeated in the first 
j^Eneid. The drones are the males without stings : 
and as they do not assist the others in their labour, 
after fecundation, they are expelled from the hive 
by the labouring bees. A French commentator 
confounds the drones with wasps. Urgent is read 
for arcent in the Arundelian manuscript, and Jla- 
grantia for fragrantia in the Lombard and both 
Dr. Mead's. 



Quid Syrtes, aut Scylla mihi, quid vasta Charybdis 

Profuit ? optato conduntur Thybridis alveo, 

Securi pelagi, atque mei. Mars perdere gentem 

Immanem Lapithum valuit : concessit in iras 

Ipse Deum antiquam genitor Calydona Dianae : 

Quod scelus aut Lapithis tantum, aut Calydona meren- 

tern? 
Ast ego, magna Jovis conjunx, nil linquere inausum 
Quae potui infelix, quae memet in omnia verti, 
Vincor ab iEnea. Quod, si mea numina non sunt 
Magna satis, dubitem baud equidem implorare quod 

usquam est : 
Flectere si nequeo Superos, Acheronta movebo. 

JEn. lib. vii. 

The speech of Juno, of which this is a part, is 
particularly fine throughout. The character of the 



FROM VIRGIL. 403 

goddess is grandly and consistently supported : the 
sentiments are characteristic of a mind, determined 
to go all lengths in the attainment of its object. 

The ancients roasted their meat on wooden 
spits, either of hazel or of service. So in lib. ii. of 
the Georgics : — 

Ergo rite suum Baccho dicemus honorem 
Carminibus patriis, lancesque et liba feremus ; 
Et ductus cornu stabit sacer hircus ad aram, 
Pinguiaque in verubus torrebimus exta colurnis. 

The libum was a sort of holy cake. The victims 
were led to the altar with a slack rope : if they 
were reluctant it was considered as a bad omen. 
The spits were made of hazel on this occasion, 
because that tree was destructive to the vines, as 
we find at verse 299. So the goat was sacrificed 
to Bacchus, because that animal is highly injurious 
to vines. 



Neve tibi ad solem vergant vineta cadentem ; 
Neve inter vites corylum sere ; neve flagella 
Summa pete, aut summa distringe ex arbore plantas ; 
Tantus amor terras ! neu ferro lsede retuso 
Semina; neve oleae silvestres insere truncos. 

The precepts here given relating to vineyards 
are curious. The objection to the hazel was the 
size and extent of the roots. It is worth while to 
compare the poet with the practical writer, who in 
a great measure followed his steps. With respect 
to aspect, Virgil only protests against an exposure 
to the setting sun : Columella is diffuse in his re- 
gulations : — " Quae cuncta, sicut ego reor, magis 

d d 2 



404 MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES 

prosunt, cum suffragatur etiam status cceli: cujus 
quam regionem spectare debeant vineae, vetus est 
dissensio, Saserna maxime probante solis ortum, 
mox deinde meridiem, turn occasum : Tremellio 
Scrofa praecipuam positionem meridianam censente: 
Virgilio de industria occasum repudiante : De- 
mocrito et Magone laudantibus cceli plagam se- 
ptentrional em, quia existiment ei subjectas feraeis- 
simas fieri vineas, quag tamen bonitate vini superen- 
tur. Nobis in universum praecipere optimum visum 
est, ut in locis frigidis meridiano vineta subjiciantur ; 
tepidis orienti advertantur : si tamen non infesta- 
bantur Austris Eurisque, velut orae maritimas in 
Bcetica. Sin autem regiones prasdictis ventis fue- 
rint obnoxiae, melius Aquiloni vel Favonio com- 
mittentur. nam ferventibus provinciis, ut ^Egy- 
pto et Numidia, uni septentrioni rectius opponen- 
tur. ,J 

Columella's doctrine respecting cuttings is as 
follows : — " Optima habentur a lumbis ; secunda 
ab humeris ; tertia a summa vite lecta, quae celer- 
rime comprehendunt, et sunt feraciora, sed ea 
quoque celeriter senescunt." He also, like Virgil, 
forbids the use of a blunt knife : — " Super caetera 
illud etiam censemus, ut duris tenuissimisque et 
acutissimis ferramentis totum istud opus exequamur. 
obtusa enim et hebes et mollis falx putatorem 
moratur, eoque minus operis efficit, et plus laboris 
^ffert vinitori. Nam si curvatur acies, quod accidit 
molli ; sive tardius penetrat, quod evenit in retuso 
et crasso ferramento ; majore nisu est opus, turn 
etiam plagaa asperse atque inaequales vites lacerant. 
neque enim uno sed saepius repetito ictu res trans- 
igitur. quo plerumque fit, ut quod praacidi debeat 
prasfringatur, et sic vitis laniata scabrataque pu- 



FROM VIRGIL. 405 

trescat humoribus, nee plagae consanentur. Quare 
magnopere monendus putator est, ut prolixet aciem 
ferramenti, et quantum possit novae ulae similem 
reddat." 

Summajiagella, we may infer from an observation 
of Mr. Miller, means the upper part of the shoot, 
which ought to be cut off: — " You should always 
make choice of such shoots as are strong and well- 
ripened of the last year's growth. These should 
be cut from the old vine, just below the place 
where they were produced, taking a knot of the 
two year's wood, which should be pruned smooth : 
then you should cut off the upper part of the shoot, 
so as to leave the cutting about sixteen inches 
long. Now in making the cuttings after this man- 
ner, there can be but one taken from each shoot ; 
whereas most persons cut them into lengths of 
about a foot, and plant them all, which is very 
wrong : for the upper parts of the shoots are never 
so well ripened as the lower part, which was pro- 
duced early in the spring ; so that, if they do take 
root, they never make so good plants; for the 
wood of those cuttings being spungy and soft, 
admits the moisture too freely, whereby the plants 
will be luxuriant in growth, but never so fruitful as 
such whose wood is closer and more compact." 

The classical traveller in Italy will trace with 
interest the geographical and picturesque descrip- 
tions of Virgil, especially such as were the scenes 
of religious rites and oracular superstitions, se- 
lected for those purposes as being calculated to 
impress awe on those uninitiated in natural know- 
ledge. Of this kind in particular were regions of 
subterranean fire or sulphureous exhalations : — • 

d d 3 



406 MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES 

At rex, sollicitus monstris, oracula Fauni, 
Fatidici genitoris, adit, lucosque sub alta 
Consulit Albunea ; nemorum quae maxima sacro 
Fonte sonat, seevamque exhalat opaca mephitim. 

JEn. lib. vii. 

The voyage of iEneas would be well worth 
making, with the poem in hand, to mark the truth 
with which the permanent works of nature are 
delineated, and to meditate on the faint traces 
remaining of what constituted human grandeur in 
ages long past : — 

Hinc altas cautes projectaque saxa Pachyni 
Radimus ; et fatis nunquam concessa moveri 
Apparet Camarina procul, campique Geloi, 
Immanisque Gela, fluvii cognomine dicta. 

JEn. lib. iii. 

The Aldides are celebrated by Virgil, in con- 
nection with the Titans and the Giants : — 

Hie et Aloi'das geminos, immania vidi 

Corpora ; qui manibus magnum rescindere ccelum 

Aggressi, superisque Jovem detrudere regnis. 

jEn. lib. vi. 

The story of Metabus, king of Privernum in the 
country of the Volscians, is justly dealt with by 
the moral poet, in the iEneid, lib. xi. : — 

Pulsus ob invidiam regno viresque superbas, 
Priverno antiqua Metabus cum excederet urbe, 
Infantem, fugiens media inter prselia belli, 
Sustulit exsilio comitem, matrisque vocavit 
Nomine Casmillse, mutata parte, Camillam. 



FROM VIRGIL. 407 

The consequences of indulging tyrannical dis- 
positions to a man in whom natural affections were 
notwithstanding strong, are pathetically touched : — 

Non ilium tectis ullae, non mcenibus, urbes 
Accepere, neque ipse manus feritate dedisset : 
Pastorum et solis exegit monlibus asvum. 



The scene between ^Eneas and his father, in the 
shades below, is one of the most striking, and 
the most highly wrought achievements of the poet, 
combining high romantic interest with political 
instruction : — 



Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento ; 
Hae tibi erunt artes : pacisque imponere morem, 
Parcere subjectis, et debellare superbos. 
Sic pater Anchises, atque haec mirantibus addit. 
Adspice, ut insignis spoliis Marcellus opimis, 
Ingreditur, victorque viros supereminet omnes. 
Hie rem Romanam, magno turbante tumultu, 
Sistet, eques sternet Pcenos, Gallumque rebellem ; 
Tertiaque arma patri suspendet capta Quirino. 
Atque hie iEneas, (una namque ire videbat 
Egregium forma juvenem et fulgentibus armis ; 
Sed frons laeta parum, et dejecto lumina vultu.) 

JEn. lib. vi. 

From the first line of this passage, Alexander 
Severus fancied he derived an omen of that im- 
perial dignity, to which many years afterwards he 
was raised. 

The infant civilisation of Rome is thus pic- 
turesquely described by our poet : — 

d d 4 



408 MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES 

Et dubitamus adhuc virtutem extendere factis ? 

Aut metus Ausonia prohibet consistere terra? 

Quis procul ille autem ramis insignis olivae, 

Sacra ferens? nosco crines incanaque menta 

Regis Romani. JEn. lib. vi. 



Not the least of Virgil's merits are those common- 
place descriptions, which set originality at defiance, 
and yet engage and gratify the mind by their un- 
obtrusive simplicity and elegance : — 



Tempus erat, quo prima quies mortalibus segris 
Incipit, et dono Divum gratissima serpit. 

JEn. lib. ii. 

The cave of the sibyl, her character and office, 
are thus described : — 

At pius iEneas arces quibus altus Apollo 
Prsesidet, horrendaeque procul secreta Sibyllae, 
Antrum immane, petit : magnam cui mentem, animumque 
Delius inspirat vates, aperitque futura. 

JEn. lib. vi. 

The following passage on the subject of Queen 
Amata, the wife of King Latinus, is elegant and 
spirited : — 

Regina, ut tectis venientem prospicit hostem, 

Incessi muros, ignes ad tecta volare, 

Nusquam acies contra Rutulas, nulla agmina Turni, 

Infelix pugnae juvenem in certamine credit 

Extinctum; et, subito mentem turbata dolore, 

Se caussam clamat, crimenque, caputque malorum ; 



FROM VIRGIL. 409 

Multaque per mcestum demens effata furorem, 
Purpureos moritura manu discindit amictus, 
Et nodum informis leti trabe nectit ab alta. 

Erichthonius was the son of Dardanus, and 
father of Tros. The Phrygians discovered the art 
of driving a chariot and pair ; but Erichthonius 
was the founder of the Four-in-Hand Club : — 

Primus Erichthonius currus et quatuor ausus 
Jungere equos, rapidusque rotis in sister e* victor. 

Georg. lib. iii. 

Servius, in a note on this passage, tells us, that 
Erichthonius being, according to the etymology 
of his name, tgig and %^cov, the offspring of strife and 
earth, was not accommodated with shoes, but in- 
commoded with tails of serpents instead of feet. 
Stripping the story of its mythological marvels, 
he was probably what we call club-footed. It was 
to conceal this deformity, we are told, that he im- 
proved the science of the whip. As there is no 
evidence that the ancient chariots had aprons, the 
concealment could only have been effected, as 
withdrawing the eye of the spectator from his feet, 
by the skill and elegance with which he squared 
his elbows. Independently, however, of all personal 
vanity, the moral probably goes no further, than 
that a carriage is particularly convenient to a lame 
man. 

Nee vero terrae ferre omries omnia possunt. 

Adspice et extremis domitum cultoribus orbem, 
Eoasque domos Arabum, pictosque Gelonos j 



410 MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES 

Divisae arboribus patriae : sola India nigrum 
Fert ebenum ; solis est thurea virga Sabaeis. 

The Geloni were a Scythian tribe, with painted 
faces after the manner of other barbarous nations, 
for the purpose of inspiring terror in war. Ebony 
was the produce of India and Ethiopia. This 
elegant wood, of which there are three kinds, 
black, red, and green, was first brought to Rome 
when Pompey triumphed over Mithridates. The 
geography of distant countries was so imperfectly 
known to the Romans, that they reckoned Ethiopia 
as a part of India : a circumstance which accounts 
for the apparent inaccuracy and confusion both of 
natural historians and poets, in fixing the locality 
of various productions. 

The following catalogue of allegorical personages 
is remarkable at once for the grandeur of the 
grouping, and a severely tasteful parsimony in the 
use of characteristic epithets or adjuncts : — 

Vestibulum ante ipsum, primisque in faucibus Orci, 
Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae ; 
Pallentesque habitant Morbi, tristisque Senectus, 
Et Metus, et malesuada Fames, ac turpis Egestas, 
Terribiles visu formae ; Letumque Laborque ; 
Turn, consanguineus Leti, Sopor, et mala mentis 
Gaudia ; mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum, 
Ferreique Eumenidum thalami, et Discordia demens, 
Vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis. 

The epithet malesuada to famine, as a pernicious 
counsellor, often leading her thrall to bad actions, 
is one of the happiest concentrations of an im- 
portant sentiment in a single word, to be met with 
even in this author so happy in his epithets. 



FROM VIRGIL. 411 

The enumeration of crimes and punishments is 
concluded in the spirit, and almost in the words, of 
Homer : — 

Non, mihi si linguae centum sint, oraque centum, 
Ferrea vox, omnes scelerum comprendere formas, 
Omnia pcenarum percurrere nomina possim. 

Mn. lib. vi- 
lli the enumeration of the topics, which con- 
stituted the song of Iopas, Virgil has followed his 
master, Homer, especially adopting, as far as his 
inferior language would admit, the jjAjqs ax&pxs, 
without repose and yet without weariness, both 
which ideas are involved in the Greek epithet : — 

Hie canit errantem lunam, solisque labores ; 
Unde hominum genus, et pecudes ; unde imber, et ignes ; 
Arcturum, pluviasque Hyadas, geminosque Triones ; 
Quid tantum Oceano properent se tingere soles 
Hiberni, vel quae tardis mora noctibus obstet. 



Orion seems to be derived ami toS oglvsw 9 from dis- 
turbing and troubling. This is the character at- 
tributed to that constellation by common consent 
of all the ancient poets, astrologers, and historians : 
a most formidable star, leading rain, hail, and 
storm in its train. Thus Virgil, iEneid, lib. i. ; — - 

Hue cursus fuit : 

Quum, subito adsurgens fluctu, nimbosus Orion 
In vada caeca tulit, penitusque procacibus austris, 
Perque undas, superante salo, perque in via saxa 
Dispulit : hue pauci vestris adnavimus oris, 



412 MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES FROM VIRGIL. 

We have a spirited description of Styx, that 
river of which the gods themselves stood in awe : — 

JEneas, miratus enim, motusque tumultu, 
Die, ait, o virgo ! quid vult concursus ad amnem ? 
Quidve petunt animae ? vel quo discrimine ripas 
Hae linquunt, illse remis vada livida verrunt ? 
Olli sic breviter fata est longaeva sacerdos : 
Anchisa generate, deum certissima proles, 
Cocyti stagna alta vides, Stygiamque paludem, 
Di cujus jurare timent, et fallere, numen. 

JEn. lib. vi. 

The length of this article warns me to stop ; 
though the topics of laudatory criticism afforded 
by the subject are inexhaustible. It will be per- 
ceived, that neither in this, nor in my other collec- 
tions of miscellaneous passages, has my choice 
fallen on the most conspicuous parts of the re- 
spective authors. My object in making such selec- 
tions has rather been, to lead my younger readers 
to look at others besides what may be called the 
Elegant Extract passages of the classics, not only 
with a critical eye, but in reference to those de- 
ductions and practical applications, which almost 
every sentence of an eminent author, whether an* 
cient or modern, may furnish to acute, inquisitive, 
and reflecting minds. 



41S 



QUAINT OPINIONS, EXPRESSIONS, AND MANNERS 
OF THE ANCIENTS. 



Anima certe, quia spiritus est, in sicco habitare 
non potest. — S. Augustin. 

Pliny says of the bear, " Nee alteri animalium 
in maleficio stultitia solertior." —Lib. viii. This 
is indeed a quaint and paradoxical attribute of 
Bruin's character. Not that the paradox involved 
in the antithesis, solertior stultitia, will not admit 
of an explanation analogous to that of vis inertia?, 
and many similar combinations ; but we are at 
a loss what to do with in maleficio. Folly may 
be busy, and bustling in left-handed attempts to 
do good, in impotent or accidentally successful 
efforts to do evil : but a consistent and well fol- 
lowed up plot of mischief, and nothing else could 
deserve the epithet of solei^s, must be an effort of 
strength, and not an ebullition of weakness. Har- 
duin's reading of astutia for stultitia, proposed con- 
jecturally without a shadow of authority, takes away 
the point and epigram of the sentence, and leaves 
the bare statement of a fact, probably in all the 
truth of natural history. 

The Flibbertigibbet of Shakspeare and the 
Great Unknown is in close alliance with those 
familiar spirits or hobgoblins, conceived by the 
ancients to amuse themselves by wrestling with 
men merely to put them into a fright. Puck is 



414 QUAINT OPINIONS, EXPRESSIONS, 

the most delightful of all hobgoblins ; and Sir Jo- 
shua Reynolds, in his picture painted for the Shak- 
speare Gallery, proved how truly Shakspearian 
both his mind and pencil were. Pliny, in the pre- 
face to his Natural History, represents Plancus 
as humourously alluding to these ghostly opi- 
nions of the people : — " Nee Plancus illepide, 
cum diceretur Asinius Pollio orationes in eum pa- 
rare, quae ab ipso aut liberis post mortem Planci 
ederentur, ne respondere posset : Cum mortuis non 
nisi law as luctari." 

It is a practice among the vulgar, in modern 
times, to call down a blessing on the sneezer. We 
learn from Cicero, that the same absurdity pre- 
vailed among the ancients: — "Quae si suscipiamus, 
pedis oifensio nobis, et abruptio corrigise, et ster- 
nutamenta erunt observanda." But the modern 
benediction is only a remnant of a more extensive 
and ridiculous superstition. Not only was sneezing 
considered as a presage of impending events, but 
the prosperous or adverse characters of those 
events was calculated by the direction in which 
the prophetic convulsion took place, whether to 
the right or to the left. 

The dying speech and confession of the swan 
was among the most strange fancies of popular be- 
lief. It was, however, well adapted to poetical em- 
bellishment and illustration. The swans of the river 
Maeander were supposed to be most zealous in 
undertaking their own funerals. Ovid makes Dido 
begin her pathetic remonstrance to iEneas with an 
appeal to this authentic fact : — 

Sic, ubi fata vocant, udis abjectus in herbis, 
Ad vada Mseandri concinit albus olor. 

Epist. vii. 



AND MANNERS OF THE ANCIENTS. 415 

There has been much dispute whether Horace, 
in his satires, means Tiresias to sneer at Ulysses, and 
covertly to express his private opinion of his own 
art, which is the most obvious sense, and lets down 
the pretence of prophecy to the level of the most 
ordinary capacity ; or whether in the words, 

O Laertiade, quidquid dicam, aut erit, aut non : 
Divinare etenim magnus mihi donat Apollo, 

Satir. lib. ii. sat. 5. 

we are to adopt a construction, which shall 
make the passage a serious assertion of prophetic 
truth. The rules of interpretation will fairly ad- 
mit the meaning to be, considering the sentence 
as elliptical, that whatever he says shall be, will 
come to pass ; and whatever he says shall not be, 
will not take place. The probability is that Horace 
intended the sense to be equivocal : in disguising 
the real meaning of the supposed diviner, he 
clearly, but safely, indicates his own opinion, that 
their pretended skill was mere imposition, and 
humourously makes the prophet assert his profes- 
sional character, in terms as ambiguous as those 
in w T hich his policy was in the habit of couching 
his oracular answers. 

Herodotus represents the evil consequences to 
the Eubceans, of having rejected the advice of an 
oracle, delivered in unusually intelligible terms, 
involving little more than the plain dictates of 
common sense : — Bax*2< yelp %$ 6 %^ & ^5 tovtm 

4>pa^£0 f$ctgt3oig6$u)vov otolv tyyh sl$ aAa /3aAA7j 
B'J^Ajvov, EujSo'fys cbrsp^sjv TroAupjxa&xj cilycts* 



416 QUAINT OPINIONS, EXPRESSIONS, 

There were three soothsayers, of the name of 
Bacis. The most ancient was of Eleus in Bceotia ; 
the second of Athens ; and the third of Caphya in 
Arcadia, who went also by the names of Cydus 
and Aletes. The most wonderful stories are told 
of this last. 

The following is a proverbial expression : — 

Anguilla'st, elabitur. Plant in Pseud. 

Among the number of strange fancies, is one, 
attaching to the number ten. The ancients thought, 
and many of the summer bathers at Brighton and 
Margate continue to think, that the tenth wave 
is larger, stronger, and more overwhelming than 
the other nine. If the military writers talk to us 
about the decuman legion and the decuman gate, 
the authors on natural history and agriculture talk 
of decuman pears being very fine and large ; and 
we are gravely . told, that the tenth egg is always 
the largest. Is not the tenth pig also the most 
plump of the litter? The decuman gate, we are 
told, was so called on account of its size. If its 
dimensions were imposing, its purpose was awful : 
— " Decumana autem porta quae appellatur, post 
praetorium est, per quam dehnquentes milites edu- 
cuntur ad portam." — Veget. 

Pomponius Mela tells us of a bandy-legged or 
baker-kneed nation in Ethiopia. Their name is 
derived from fytaj. " Ab eo tractu, quern ferae infe- 
stant, proximi sunt Himantopodes, inflexi lentis 
cruribus, quos serpere potius quam ingredi referunt; 
deinde Pharusii, aliquando, tendente ad Hesperidas 
Hercule, dites ; nunc inculti, et, nisi quod pecore 
aluntur, admodum inopes." — Lib. iii. cap. ult. 



OF THE ANCIENTS. 417 

Seneca gives a very humourous account of per- 
sons leading a sort of antipodean life, doing every- 
thing by contraries, and living by candle-light. It 
seems an anticipation of modern hours in the 
fashionable world : — " Excedebat, inquit, coena 
ejus diem ? Minim e ! valde enim frugaliter vive- 
bat ; nihil consumebat, nisi noctem. Itaque, 
crebro dicentibus ilium quibusdam avarum et sor- 
didum: Vos, inquit, ilium et lychnobium dicatis! 
Non debes admirari, si tantas invenis vitiorum 
proprietates : varia sunt j innumerabiles habent 
facies ; comprendi eorum genera non possunt," 



E E 



418 



SOUND MORAL DOCTRINES OF THE ANCIENTS. 



Ay«7r»i ov tyrei ru suutyis* — Plato, in Symposio. 
Whatever we may think respecting the dete- 
rioration of style in the time of the Senecas, it 
seems as if Christian habits of thinking, marked 
by a more just feeling and philosophy, had thus 
early made a silent progress in the heathen mind. 
The following sentiment may indeed be found in 
anterior authors, but I doubt whether it be any 
where so simply and correctly stated : — 

Nemo tarn Divos habuit faventes, 
Crastinum ut possit sibi polliceri. 

Senec, in Thyeste. 

Ovid is not the poet to whom we should pre- 
ferably recur for morality. Yet the great principle 
of the connection between occupation and virtue 
is strongly stated and exemplified by him in his 
elegiac poem De Remed. Amor. : — 

Quseritis, JEgisthus quare sit factus adulter ? 
In promtu caussa est : desidiosus erat. 

The illustration is notorious, but strong and pointed. 
The general doctrine had been previously laid 
down : — ■ 



MORAL DOCTRINES OF THE ANCIENTS. 419 

Otia si tollas, periere Cupidinis arcus, 
Contemtaeque jacent, et sine luce, faces : 

Quam platanus vino gaudet, quam populus unda, 
Et quam limosa canna palustris humo ; 

Tarn Venus otia amat. 

Seneca, not the tragedian, as quoted by Erasmus, 
but the philosopher, in the 107th of his epistles, 
borrows the following sentiment, closely expressed 
in a single iambic line, from the original Greek of 
Cleanthes the Stoic, whence Epictetus also trans- 
ferred it to ch. 77. of his Manual : — 

Ducunt volentem fata, nolentem trahunt. 



e e 2 



420 



POPULAR TRICKS AND SUPERSTITIOUS IMAGI, 
NATIONS OF THE ANCIENTS. 



Veteres iis quos irridere volebant, cornua dormientibus ca- 
piti imponebant, vel caudam vulpis, vel quid simile.— Scali- 
gerana. 

The Sortes Virgiliance furnish a specimen of 
Pagan superstition. To enter into any explanation 
of them might seem like paying the reader a bad 
compliment : but it may not be so generally known, 
that under the first race of the French kings, a 
most profane practice was substituted for the 
Homeric or Virgilian lots. Three different books 
of the Bible were taken, for instance, the Pro- 
phecies, the Gospels, and the Epistles of St. Paul. 
Having laid them on the altar of some saint, by 
way of enhancing the piety of the proceeding, the 
consulters opened the books at hazard, and entered 
into a solemn examination of the respective texts, 
to ascertain in what respects they were applicable 
to the points they wished to ascertain. It is ob- 
vious that this would not always end in mere folly ; 
but that the cunning contrivers of the accidental 
opening would take care the book should gape at 
such leaves, as should contain some fact or sen- 
timent which they might wrest to the purposes 
they designed to promote. Louis le Debonnaire 



POPULAR TRICKS, ETC. OF THE ANCIENTS, 421 

had the merit of abolishing this custom. In the 
Ordinances of that emperor, the law to such effect 
is found in the following terms : — "Ut nullus in 
Psalterio, vel Evangelio, vel aliis rebus sortiri 
praesumat, nee divinationes aliquas observare." 

But even Socrates himself was not proof against 
this superstition ; as we learn from the following 
passage of Diogenes Laertius, in the Life of 
Socrates. It shows in a strong point of view the 
inconsistency of human wisdom in the wisest, that 
the man who could make such a reply as the fol- 
lowing to his wife ; T% yvvxiKos eiTrouoys, 3 A§Uoq$ owroflvii- 
<ncei$, Hv 8=, s<pv\ 9 &xuiw$ hfiovkou ; should have had his 
mind affected by a sors Homerica, communicated 
in a dream : — "Omg 16%*$ rivet uvtw \sycw, 

Tlpoc Alcr^/vvjv g^5»j, El§ to/tijv ct7ro$otvovpcii. 

Brutus drew a similar presage from the coin- 
cidence of his opening on the passage in the 
sixteenth Iliad, where Patroclus says that Fate 
and the son of Latona had caused his death, and 
Apollo being the watchword on the day of the 
battle of Pharsalia. 

The opinions of the ancients^ respecting the 
deathbed inspiration of poets, the Sibylline and 
other oracles, are well known. Thus Aristophanes, 
in the play of The Knights : — 

"A$si £g p£py]<r/xouf sW o yegav <ri%v\Xici. 

Actus 1, Scena 1* 

E e 3 



4>2% POPULAR TRICKS, ETC. 

Ovid gives the following account of the festival 
of Vesta, which was celebrated on the 9th of 
June, in his Fasti : ■ — 



Adspicit instantes mediis sex lucibus Idus 

Ilia dies, qua sunt vota soluta Deae. 
Vesta, fave : tibi nunc operata resolvimus ora : 

Ad tua si nobis sacra venire licet. 

Ovid's Medea, and Horace's Canidia, are both 
indebted to the Pharmaceutria of Theocritus for 
many of their love-charms. The wy? was a bird 
used by magicians in their incantations, supposed 
to be the wag-tail. The moon and the night, 
notwithstanding the supposed purity of Diana, 
have always kept bad company with sorcerers, and 
are the old accomplices of their abominations, as 
well as the receivers of lovers' vows, knowing them 
to be stolen : — 

BacrsDjaat ttotj tuv TifiotyyTOio TruXulfpetv 
Avpiov ov$ v)v '»§«;• xou jaepJ/Hjaa/, ola [xs noiii. 
Nuv he v\v Ix Svecjov xulu§6<ro[j,ui. aAAa, ^sAava, 
<E>a7i/e xaAov t)v yag, 7roloiel<rofjt,cii oiaw^a, dtxipov, 
T<£ j^ovlot & 'E?caTa, rav xa) (rxvKaxeg rgojxeovli, 

'EipftOpsVCtiV VSXVCtiV OtVOi T Yjplot 9 XOU jAeXuV OUfXU. 

Xa7g' 'Eixarot. Sao"7rAJjri, xou €$ ts\o; upfxiv 07tuhei 9 
<$>a.QIJ*(x.xo<. raOS' ephoKrct ^epslova pyre ti Klgxag 
M.yits ri> M»)5e/aj, fAYjTs %ixv§as IT epi[/,$oig. 
*lvy%9 eAxe tu Tvjvov gjxov irofi hoopoi rov uvdpao 

Manducus was the name given to a strange 
figure, dressed up frightfully, with wide jaws and 
large teeth, carried about at public shows : — - 



OF THE ANCIENTS. 423 

C. Quid, si aliquo ad ludos me pro manduco locem ? 
L. Quapropter ? C. Quia pol clare crepito dentibus. 

Plautus, in JRudente. 

These grotesque masks were designed partly to 
raise terror, and partly laughter. Juvenal also 
alludes to them : — 

Pars magna Italiae est, si verum admittimus, in qua 
Nemo togam sumit, nisi mortuus. Ipsa dierum 
Festorum herboso colitur si quando theatro 
Majestas, tandemque redit ad pulpita notum 
Exodium, cum personae pallentis hiatum 
In gremio matris formidat rusticus infans. 

Sat. Hi. 

Superstition is often closely connected with 
vice, sometimes degenerating into it, and ulti- 
mately furnishing a mere cloak for it. The fes- 
tivals and ceremonies in honour of Bacchus, ce- 
lebrated by his frantic priestesses, whose very 
name is derived ano t§ palvso-Sm are thus indignantly 
described : — 

Nota Bonae secreta Deae, cum tibia lumbos 
Incitat ; et cornu pariter, vinoque feruntur 
Attonitae, crinemque rotant, ululantque Priapi 
Maenades. Juvenal, sat. vi, 

Morpheus is represented as one of the children 
of sleep, and as taking the human semblance : — 

At pater e populo natorum mille suorum 
Excitat artificem, simulatoremque figurae, 
Morphea. Ovid. MetamorpJi. xi. 

E E 4 



424 POPULAR TRICKS, ETC. OF THE ANCIENTS. 

Another of the sons of sleep is denominated 
$o$r)Tcog 9 from the Greek po&jTpov, signifying affright, 
or a dreadful vision and phantom of night : — 



Hunc Icelon Super!, mortale Phobetora vulgus 
Nominat. 



425 



MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES FROM PLUTARCH, 



We have an English proverb, that cleanliness is 
next to godliness. The sentiment, though quaint 
in terms, expresses an ancient and universal feel- 
ing with all people, sufficiently civilised to have 
" sat in good men's seats," or to " have been 
knolled to church by the bell" of any religious 
sect, false or true. Plutarch thus describes the 
magnificence of the funeral made for Timoleon by 
the Syracusans, and attended by the people dressed 
in what we should call their Sunday clothes : — 

IlgawSjCwrov Ss ttoKXx) [tvpio&sg avSgcov xai yvvciixwv, wv o^fig 
jxen y)v sooty, irgiTTOVcu, noivleov srsZavccpivow xat xot§apw$ tcrSrj- 
rag qooovv'lwv. 

The transfiguration of Christ, as recorded by 
Matthew, chap, xvii., forcibly illustrates the na- 
turally received connection, between whiteness 
and absolute purity : — " And after six days Jesus 
taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and 
bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, 
and was transfigured before them : and his face 
did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as 
the light." 

There is considerable obscurity and difficulty in 
the following passage of Plutarch's treatise, Cur 
Pythia nunc non reddat Oracula carmine. In the 
text of Wyttenbach it stands thus : — : Olftai 8s y<- 

vwa-xeiv to nag* 'HpaxXshop teyopsvov, o? ova£, ol to pxv° 



426 MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES FROM PLUTARCH. 

Teiov if* to h As\<po"i$, outs hiysi, outs xpurrlsi, otXXot <r*j- 

petlvsi. The reading of the earliest editions, for 
what stands here as 6V oWf, was cSo-r ow§ 9 which 
gave rise to an erroneous opinion that the distinc- 
tion of Heraclitus was this : The Delphic god no 
longer either declares or conceals any thing by the 
instrumentality of dreams, but signifies it clearly. 
But Amyot and Xylander agree in introducing 
the conjectural reading &$ 6> "v«£, making the sense 
to be, that the king whose oracle, etc. i. e. Apollo, 
only furnishes a glance, or vista vision of futurity, 
neither explaining events categorically, nor veiling 
them in impenetrable darkness. The reading left 
by Wyttenbach to occupy the text, b'g oW£, is mani- 
festly incorrect. The words unabbreviated must be 

wg o ava^» 

There is much curious matter in the treatise of 
Plutarch on Isis and Osiris, with respect to the 
doctrines of Zoroaster concerning Oromazes, and 
Arimanius, and Mithras. Mithras was the media- 
torial power between the other two, whose respec- 
tive worship is thus characterised : 'E8/5a?e jalv ra 

suxtolxo, Sustv xui ^agi^gix., tco Se u7roTgo7ruiU xa\ o~xu§pci07roi* 

The proverb, Isiacum non facit Linostolia, the 
dress does not make the monk, seems to have 
originated with Plutarch : — Outs yotp <pixoo-o<pous ixu- 

ycovoTgo<ploti XOU Tg&COV0$Qgl0U 7T010UQ-1} outs Io~hzxou$ a\ XlVQ- 
frokiuio 



427 



MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES FROM ERASMUS. 



This elegant author was strong and bitter in his 
satirical paintings : as much so as Juvenal himself. 
The revivers of letters were naturally close copyists 
of the patterns they had so newly acquired : but 
the coarser parts of the texture were most conge- 
nial to their talents and their taste. They dealt 
much in general satire and personal invective : 
and both in their hands degenerated into abuse. 
The following passage from the Encomium Morice 
will be thought germane to the matter : — " Sed 
multo etiam suavius, si quis animadvertat anus, 
longo jam senio mortuas, adeoque cadaverosas, ut 
ab inferis redisse videri possint, tamen illud semper 
in ore habere, $£>$ ayudov : adhuc catulire, atque, ut 
Graeci dicere solent, xairpouv, et magna mercede con- 
ductum aliquem Phaonem inducere, fucis assidue 
vultum oblinere, nusquam a speculo discedere, 
inflmas pubis sylvam vellere, vietas ac putres osten- 
tare mammas, tremuloque gannitu languentem 
solicitare cupidinem, potitare, misceri puellarum 
choris, literulas amatorias scribere." 

The following passage is remarkable, as having 
furnished a subject of illustration to the pencil of 
Holbein : — " Rursum alios qui pecuniae con- 
tactum ceu aconitum horreant, nee a vino inters 
im, nee a mulierum contactu temperantes." The 



428 MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES FROM ERASMUS. 

Church was very sure to furnish the subject, and 
the order of Cordeliers was selected by the painter. 
Erasmus treats the doctors of the Sorbonne and 
their sophistry with very little reserve. Among 
other imputations, he says, " Theological scien- 
tial laudem, omnibus prope summotis, sibi pecu- 
liariter arrogant." 



429 



PASSAGE FROM SALLUST. 



Jr ostremo, corporis et fortunae bonorum, lit ini- 
tium, finis est ; omnia orta occidunt, et aucta 
senescunt : animus incorruptus, seternus, rector 
humani generis, agit atque habet cuncta, neque 
ipse habetur." — Jugurth. cap. 2. 

This is a noble common-place, and at the same 
time a fine and favourable specimen of the au- 
thor's manner. Habet here bears the same sense as 
in the following passage of Ovid : — 

Cum mihi, qui fulmen, qui vos habeoque regoque, 
Struxerit insidias, 



430 



MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES FROM PLINY THE 
NATURAL HISTORIAN. 



" Eorum medius Sol fertur, amplissima magni- 
tudine ac potestate : nee temporum modo terra- 
rumque, sed siderum etiam ipsorum, ccelique rector. 
Hunc mundi esse totius animum, ac planius mentem: 
hunc principale naturae regimen, ac numen credere 
decet, opera ejus aestimantes. Hie lucem rebus 
ministrat, aufertque tenebras : hie reliqua sidera 
occultat, illustrat : hie vices temporum, annum que 
semper renascentem ex usu naturae temperat : hie 
cceli tristitiam discutit, atque etiam humani nubila 
animi serenat : hie suum lumen ceteris quoque 
sideribus fenerat. Praeclarus, eximius, omnia in- 
tuens, omnia etiam exaudiens, ut principi literarum 
Homero placuisse in uno eo video/' — Hist. Nat. 
lib. ii. cap. 6. This description of the sun, as the 
great vivifying principle of material nature, is dif- 
fuse, but extremely fine. In some respects, it bears 
a considerable resemblance to the passage in the 
last article, where Sallust represents the mind as 
incorruptible and eternal, the mover of the human 
frame, and the governor of human actions. 

" Ovium summa genera duo, tectum et colo- 
nicum : illud mollius, hoc in pascuo delicatius, 



MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES FROM PLINY. 431 

quippe cum tectum rubis vescatur." — Lib. ii. 
cap. 47. The first kind had the wool soft, curly, and 
short. The last had it long, thick, and shaggy. The 
former were called tectce oves, because their car- 
cases were carefully covered to preserve the beauty 
of their fleeces. We find, therefore, that the modern 
practice among fashionable breeders and agricul- 
tural dandies, of dressing their sheep in jackets, is 
only the revival of an ancient custom : so true is 
it, that there is nothing new under the sun. The 
latter were denominated ores colonicce, because they 
were left to take their chance in the pastures, with 
no better coat than what Nature in her tailor 
capacity had provided for them. Yet, clownish as 
they were, they had some advantage over their 
genteeler brethren : for the ancients had again 
anticipated us in the notable discovery and im- 
portant maxim, that, as food, the hardiest sheep 
make the best mutton. 

" Quod alii Orionis, alii Oti fuisse arbitrantur." 
— Lib vii. cap. 16. These are the names of fa- 
bulous giants. There is another reading : Quod 
alii Orionis, alii Etionis, §c. But the most correct 
editions retain Oti. The black letter editions of 
Pliny write this latter name Othns : but the proper 
orthography is Otus. Two historical giants are 
mentioned by this author, as having appeared in 
the time of Augustus: — " Pusioni et Secundillge 
erant nomina." 

Leontium, a courtesan, no very dignified anta- 
gonist to an eloquent philosopher, is alluded to by 
Pliny in the preface to his Natural History, as 
the woman who wrote against Theophrastus, and 
gave rise to the proverbial expression in the fol- 



432 MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES FROM 

lowing passage : — '" Ceu vero nesciam, adversus 
Theophrastum hominem in eloquentia tantum, ut 
nomen divinum inde invenerit, scripsis.se etiam 
feminam, et proverbium inde natum, suspendio ar- 
borem eligendi. Non queo mihi temperare, quo- 
minus ad hoc pertinentia ipsa censorii Catonis 
verba ponam : ut inde appareat, etiam Catoni de 
Militari disciplina commentanti, qui sub Africano, 
immo vero et sub Annibale didicisset militare, et 
ne Africanum quidem ferre potuisset, qui imperator 
triumphum reportasset, paratos fuisse istos, qui 
obtrectatione alienae scientiae famam sibi aucu- 
pantur." Cicero also mentions Leontium as writing 
against Theophrastus ; Epicurus, Metrodorus, and 
Hermachus against Pythagoras, Plato, and Empe- 
docles. Vegetius speaks of Cato's treatise on 
military discipline. Livy imputes to Cato an un- 
worthy jealousy of Scipio Africanus, and Pliny 
here acquaints us that he experienced retaliation 
in an invidious attack on himself as a writer on 
military subjects. 

The credulity of the ancient compilers of natural 
history was extreme. What are we to think of 
Pliny opening the twenty-fifth chapter of his ninth 
book with such gossips' tales as these ? — " Est 
parvus admodum piscis adsuetus petris, echeneis 
appellatus : hoc carinis adhaerente naves tardius 
ire creduntur, inde nomine imposito : quam ob 
causam amatoriis quoque veneficiis infamis est, et 
judiciorum ac litium mora ; quae crimina una laude 
pensat, fluxus gravidarum utero sistens, partusque 
continens ad puerperium." 

The following description of cups, fragile in 
their texture, in the preface to book xxxiii., goes 
very nearly to represent our modern china : — 



PLINY THE NATURAL HISTORIAN. 433 

" Murrhina et crystallina ex eadem terra effodimus, 
quibus pretium facer et fragilitas." 

The Troglodytes were a people of Ethiopia, 
below Egypt, so called from their inhabiting sub- 
terranean holes and caverns, from the word rpwy\^ 
a hole, a defile, or a cavern, and §6voo, to enter 
generally, and specifically, to enter in a crouching 
and creeping attitude : — " Troglodytse specus ex- 
cavant. Hge illis domus, victus serpentium carnes, 
stridorque, non vox : adeo sermonis commercio ca- 
rent : Garamantes matrimoniorum exsortes, passim 
cum feminis degunt." — Lib. v. cap. 8. Making 
allowance for Pliny's habitual tendency to the mar- 
vellous, these people must have been in the lowest 
condition of human nature. 



F F 



434 



PASSAGE FROM JELIAN DE NATURA ANI- 
MALIUM. 



J\.7ro<r<poiTlei psv 6 rou Tv^scog rovg Qguxug* 6 $1 tov Ausgrov 
Tovg otVYjgYiy,evov$ vwoiysi toov 7ro$a>v, *va (X.Y) nors vsrjKu^eg bvrsg 
ol ®getxeg r i7nroi 9 sir ex. [asvtoi sxtt^tIoovtou roig vsxpolg iju,7rX#7*- 
ropsvoi, xcxi otYj^cjog xcer uutvqv, clog nvcov cpofispcuv fiouvovTsg, 

ct7ro<rxi§Tt»<nv. — Lib. xvi. cap. 25. 

The verb vTruyei ought in some cases to be ren- 
dered in Latin by subtrahit, in others by subjicit. 
In the Latin of Schneider's ^Elianus de Natura 
Animalium, it is rightly translated by the former 
word : the latter sense would have no propriety 
in connection with the context 



435 



MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES FROM AULUS 
GELLIUS. 



Est etiam ventus nomine Ccecias, quern Ari- 
stoteles ita flare dicit, ut nubes non procul propellat, 
sed ut ad sese vocet, ex quo versum istum prover- 
bialem factum ait : 

Kctxel 

'E<p' savTov r i\xwv w$ 6 Kctixla$ vs(po$»- 

Praeter hos autem, quos dixi, sunt alii plurifa- 
riam venti commenticii suae quisque regionis indi- 
gent, ut est Horatianus quoque ille Atabidus, 
quos ipse quoque exsequuturus fui: addidissem- 
que eos, qui Etesice et Prod?*omi appellitantur, qui 
certo tempore anni, quum canis oritur, ex alia at- 
que alia parte cceli spirant : rationesque omnium 
vocabulorum, quia plus paulo adbibi, effudissem, 
nisi multa jam prorsus omnibus vobis reticentibus 
verba fecissem, quasi fleret a me axgoW** h$eM%x.vj" — 
Noct. Attic, lib. ii. cap. 9£* 

There is an allusion to the effects of the wind 
Caecias in the Knights of Aristophanes ; — 

l £lc, qvto$ rj%) xctixlu$ Kd) <ruxo$avTlct$ ttvsI, 

This particular wind is frequent in the Mediter- 
ranean, and there called Greco Levante. 

f f 2 



436 MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES 

The reproof of Herodes Atticus to the pretended 
and mere outside philosopher, and his subsequent 
liberality to him, bear some resemblance to the 
conduct of Hamlet to the players, and his direc- 
tions to Polonius : — " Turn Herodes interrogat 
quisnam esset. Atque, ille, vultu sonituque vocis 
objurgatorio, philosophum sese esse dicit ; et mi- 
rari quoque addit cur quaerendum putasset quod 
videret. Video, inquit Herodes, barbam et pal- 
lium, philosophum nondum video. Quaeso autem te, 
cum bona venia dicas mihi, quibus nos uti posse 
argumentis existimas, ut esse te philosophum nosci- 
temus ? Interibi aliquot ex iis qui cum Herode 
erant, erraticum hominem esse dicere et nulli rei, 
incolamque esse sordentium ganearum ; ac, nisi 
accipiat quod petit, convicio turpi solitum inces- 
sere : atque ibi Herodes, Demus, inquit, huic 
aliquid ceris, cuicuimodi est ; tamqiiam homines, 
non tamquam homini : et jussit dari precium panis 
triginta dierum." 

The word situs is applied to burial in general : 
sepultus to the full rites of Roman sepulture, when 
the body was burnt, the ashes collected, and all 
the honours duly performed. The custom of in- 
humation was anterior to that of burning ; and 
the Cornelian family persisted in it without burning 
within the period of Cicero's remembrance. Hu- 
matus, therefore, and situs, seem to be synonymous ; 
but afterwards sepultus was extended to all forms 
of interment, whether with more or less ceremony ; 
so that sepultus was applied to inhumation, though 
of course neither of the other words could be used 
for burning and collecting ashes. From the word 
situs comes siticines, persons whose profession it was 
to sing dirges over dead bodies. Our undertakers 



to* 



FROM AULUS GELLIUS. 437 

men are mutes ; equally irrational, but less offen- 
sive to the feelings of the real mourners. Aulus 
Gellius gives the following account of these peo- 
ple, lib. xx. cap. 2. : — " Siticixes, scriptum est in 
oratione M. Catonis, qua inscribitur, Ne imperi- 
um sit veteri, ubi novus venerit. Siticines, inquit, 
et liticines, et tubicines. Sed Caesellius Vindex in 
Commentariis lectionum antiquarum, scire qui- 
dem se ait liticines lituo cantare, et tubicines 
tuba : quid istuc autem sit, quo siticines cantent, 
homo ingenuae veritatis scire sese negat, Nos au- 
tem in Capitonis Atei Conjectaneis invenimus, si- 
ticines appellatos, qui apud sitos canere soliti 
essent, hoc est, vita functos et sepultos : eosque 
habuisse proprium genus tubse, a cseterorum 
differens." 

The ancient writers on natural philosophy ap- 
plied the word Typhon to that alarming phenome- 
non the water-spout, not very uncommon at sea, 
and especially in the Mediterranean. The Vulca- 
nians and Neptunians are, of course, at daggers 
drawn in their solutions. The former ascribe the 
agitation of the waters on the surface, to the oper- 
ation of fire under the bed of the sea. The latter 
account for it by suction, and illustrate it by the 
application of cupping glasses to the skin. The 
same appearance and effects take place, but less 
frequently, on land. The mischief on those occa- 
sions is very extensive : houses are unroofed j 
birds and even other animals within the influence 
of the storm, are caught up and dashed with 
violence against the ground. Aulus Gellius de- 
cribes them thus, lib. xix. cap. 1. : — " Turn postea 
complorantibus nostris omnibus, atque in sentina 
satis agentibus, dies quidem tandem illuxit : sed 

f f 3 



438 PASSAGES FROM AULUS GELLIUS. 

nihil de periculo, neque de sasvitia amissum, quin 
turbines etiam crebriores, et coelum atrum, et fumi- 
gantes globi, et figurae qusedam nubium metuendae, 
quas Tv<puMs vocabant, impendere imminereque, 
ac depressuraa navem videbantur." 



439 



MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES FROM CICEKO. 



JNmiL habet nee fortuna tua majus, quam ut 
possis ; nee natura tua melius, quam ut velis ser- 

vare quam plurimos." This was addressed to 
Caesar, in the oration for Q. Ligarius. A more 
elegant compliment was never paid. 

Cicero justly mentions the following as an in- 
stance of weakness in a great man : but surely 
Cicero might have looked at home : — " Leviculus 
sane noster Demosthenes, qui illo susurro delectari 
se dicebat aquam ferentis mulierculae, ut mos in 
Graecia est, insusurrantisque alteri, Hie est ille De- 
mosthenes. Quid hoc levius ? At quantus orator? 
Sed apud alios loqui videlicet didicerat, non mul- 
tum ipse secum." — Tusc. Quwst. lib. v. cap. 36, 

Erskine in his glory would probably have been 
no less delighted with the admiration of a milk- 
maid. Diogenes Laertius tells us, that Diogenes 
the Cynic once administered to the great orator's 
vanity, by pointing him out with his finger to some 
strangers who had expressed a great desire to see 
him : but this was only done in mockery ; and we 
are not told that Demosthenes was deceived by it, 
or that he betrayed any pleasure in the curiosity 



of the strangers. 



F F 



440 MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES 

Zeno, the founder and leader of the Stoic sect, 
was in the habit of applying this whimsical illus- 
tration : that eloquence and logic were respectively 
like the open hand and the closed fist ; inasmuch 
as the aim of the orator was to give his arguments 
all the extension and amplification possible, that of 
the logician to propound them in terms the most 
strict and narrow : — " Zenonis est, inquam, hoc 
Stoici. omnem vim loquendi, ut jam ante Aristo- 
teles, in duas tributam esse partes ; rhetoricam, pal- 
mae ; dialecticam, pugno similem esse dicebat, quod 
latius loquerentur rhetores, dialectici autem com- 
pressius." — De Finibus, lib. ii. 

Of air the miserable and ludicrous superstitions 
which the enlightened and politic priesthood and 
augural college of Rome palmed on the ignorant 
simplicity of the vulgar, the humbug of the Tri- 
pudium solistimum and the mountebank character 
of the Pullarius seem to be the perfection of folly 
and impudence : — " Quae aves ? aut, ubi ? Attulit, 
inquit, in cavea pullos is, qui ex eo ipso nominatur 
pullarius. Has sunt igitur aves internuntias Jovis : 
quae pascantur, necne, quid refert ? nihil ad auspi- 
cia : sed quia, cum pascuntur, necesse est, aliquid 
ex ore cadere, et terram pavire, terripavium primo, 
post terripudium dictum est : hoc quidem jam tri- 
pudium dicitur. cum igitur offa cecidit ex ore pulli, 
turn auspicanti tripudium solistimum nuntiant." 
— De Divinat. lib. ii 

The name of Moneta was given to Juno by the 
Romans a monendo : — " Atque etiam scriptum a 
multis est, cum terras motus factus esset, Ut sue 
plena procuratio Jieret, vocem ab aede Junonis ex 
arce exstitisse : quocirca Junonem illam appella- 
tam Monetam." — Cic. de Divinat. lib. i. This 



FROM CICERO. 441 

temple of Juno Moneta was on the descent from 
the capitol, and in consequence of the mint being 
afterwards established near the same spot, the 
pieces coined there took the name of Moneta : 
and to this trivial accident do we trace the etymo- 
logy of that universal and important word, money. 



U2 



fOETICAL GENEALOGIES AND EXPLOITS OF 
FABULOUS PERSONAGES. 



Porphyrion was the son of Sisyphus. He is 
mentioned by Claudian in his Gigantomachy : — » 

Ecce autem medium spiris delapsus in aaquor, 
Porphyrion trepidam conatur rumpere Delon, 
Scilicet ad superos ut torqueat improbus axes : 
Horruit ^Egseus : stagnantibus exsilit antris 
Longsevo cum patre Thetis ; desertaque mansit 
Ripa Neptuni, famulis veneranda profundis. 

Damastor is another of the giants, in some 
authors improperly called Adamastor, also men* 
tioned in the Gigantomachy of Claudian : — ■ 

Ille, procul subitis fixus sine vulnere nodis, 
Ut se letifero sensit durescere visu, 
(Et steterat jam paene lapis) " Quo vertimur?" inquit: 
" Quae serpit per membra silex ? qui torpor inertem 
Marmorea me peste ligat ?" Vix pauca locutus, 
Quod timuit, jam totus erat : ssevusque Damastor, 
Ad depellendos jaGulum dum quaereret hostes, 
Germani rigidum misit, pro rupe, cadaver. 

Philostratus, in his life of Apollonius, and Frein- 
shemius, on Quintus Curtius, make King Porus out 
to be an actual giant. 



POETICAL GENEALOGIES, ETC. 443 

Merlin, in his second macaronic, describes the 
giant Fracassus in the following terms :— 

Primus erat quidam Fracassus prole gigantis, 
Cujus stirps olim Morganto venit ab illo, 
Qui Bacchiozonem campana ferre solebat, 
Cum quo mille hominum colpos fracasset in uno* 



444 



MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES FROM PERSIUS. 



Tun', vetule, auriculis alienis colligis escas ? 

Auriculis ! quibus et dicas cute perditus, Ohe. 

" Quo didicisse, nisi hoc fermentum, et quae semel 

intus 
" Innata est, rupto jecore exierit caprificus ?" 
En pallor, seniumque ! O mores, usque adeone 
Scire tuum nihil est, nisi te scire hoc sciat alter ! 
" At pulchrum est, digito monstrari, et dicier, Hie est. 
" Ten' cirratorum centum dictata fuisse, 
" Pro nihilo pendas ?" Ecce, inter pocula, quserunt 
Romulidae saturi, quid dia poemata narrent ! 

Sat. 1. 

It is evident throughout his works, how closely 
Persius imitated Horace. Many hints are taken 
from him in the passage above transcribed, and in 
the following lines which previously occur : — 

Nam Romae quis non — ? Ah, si fas dicere ! Sed fas 
Tunc, cum ad canitiem, et nostrum istud vivere triste, 
Aspexi, et nucibus facimus quaecunque relictis : 
Cum sapimus patruos — tunc, tunc ignoscite. 

The obscurity of Persius arises principally from 
the necessity he lay under, being determined not 
to compromise morality by courtly obsequiousness, 



MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES FROM PERSIUS. 445 

so to clothe his satire, writing as he did in the 
reign of Nero, that what modern lawyers techni- 
cally term the innuendos should not be too obvious. 
He was obliged to express himself in allusion 
rather than in direct attack. Thus in the passage 
above quoted, he takes aim from behind a bush at 
the emperor himself, who had ordered his poems 
to be taught to the curly-pated young nobility in 
their elementary schools. 

The practice of teaching parrots and magpies 
to speak certain common words, as salve, ave, and 
others, and to appropriate them to the seasons of 
meeting and parting, was known to the ancients 
as well as to ourselves. Hunger is supposed to be 
the powerful engine by which this feat is accom- 
plished. The reward of good, in very small por- 
tions, is bestowed on their efforts at articulation. 
Persius illustrated the fate of scribblers by this 
allusion, whose necessities drive them to writing 
verses as mechanically, and with as little meaning, 
as parrots and magpies utter and even time arti- 
culate sounds, by mere dint of habit, without a 
spark of meaning : — 

Quis expedivit psittaco suum x°"P e ? 
Picasque docuit verba nostra conari ? 
Magister artis, ingenique largitor 
Venter, negatas artifex sequi voces, 



446 



MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES FROM MODERN 
AUTHORS. 



The President de Thou, lib. 113. on the year 
1595, describes the usages of the Penitential at 
Rome, and the solemnities held when Henry the 
Fourth of France sent his two proxies to undergo 
his penance, and bring back his absolution. The 
royal heretic and renegade, more guilty than the 
mob of sinners, and therefore deserving severer 
punishment, was not slow to discover, that how- 
ever it may be with geometry, there is a royal road 
to absolution. Delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi. 
On this principle, our James the First, though 
subject in all other respects to the severe discipline 
of Scotland, was allowed to have his whipping-boy. 
Henry's proxies are introduced with the following 
ceremonial : — " Inde ad solium deduct! ; cum 
capite demisso rursus in genua procubuissent, 
Psalmus 50 recitatur, ad cujus singulos versiculos 
Pontifex virgula quasi vindicta, qua ut olim servi 
apud Romanos manumittebantur, sic nunc pec- 
catis nexi per absolutionem in libertatem Christia- 
nam asseruntur, leviter supplices procuratores 
tangebat." 

Budaeus, lib. 5. of his treatise De Asse, institutes 
a comparison between Croesus and Midas, and ex- 
plains the asses' ears with which that Phrygian 



PASSAGES FROM MODERN AUTHORS. 447 

tyrant was endowed, to have been typical of the 
spies and emissaries he kept in pay : — " At ille ca- 
lamitate et summo atque ignominioso vitas discri- 
mine inclaruit, hie auribus asininis non aureis inno- 
tuit. Ex eo enim in proverbium venit, quod 
multos otacustas, id est auricularios et emissarios 
haberet, rumorum captatores et sermonum dela- 
tores, cujusmodi habere solent principes mali 
qui stimulante conscientia securi esse nequeunt." 
Caracalla, for whom every act of tyranny in past 
times formed a precedent, and every instrument, 
and every engine, which could play upon the 
meanness of jealousy, whether fabulous or prac- 
tical, was an object of desire, not only consulted 
impostors of every description, among the fore- 
most wizards and astrologers, for the discovery 
of conspiracies against his life ; but expressed a 
sincere longing for such a pair of ears, as could 
take in every word uttered about him, of whatever 
character or tendency. 

In the Scaligerana, on the word Koa-^rcap, the 
great critic gives the following etymological mean- 
ing, founded on Homer : — " Kocr^Toop ut ag^ows, 
prarfectum significabant" that is, the governor of 
a country, embracing the presidency over both ju- 
dicial and military affairs. " Kovpsh enim et appofav 
verba sunt politica, quce administrare remp. (non 
autem ornare) proprie significabant, ut apud Horn. 

Iliad. 1. 'Arps'tix 8s (J.uXis'ci Suco K.ocrpt.rjTOps \u6ov" 

The Popes Alexander VI. and Julius II. have 
been satirised by the poets of their time, for appear- 
ing in the field of battle and at sieges in armour and 
military array. Julius II., in 1511, exhibited him- 
self with helmet and breastplate, to hasten a siege 
which his generals did not press so vigorously as 



448 MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES 

he wished. A satirist warns the soldiery to be 
cautious in their fury, lest they should hit a Pope 
by a random shot. * Julius is meant by the sep- 
tuagenarian priest and the most holy father, in the 
following passage : — " Num tandem ex aede cha- 
ritatis, aut rldei sacello ancylia prompserat, et signa 
cruciata? Ecquid eum pudebat servum Dei se 
vocare, cum Franciam Christianorum decus, et 
pontiflcum olim, religionisque asylum, bustis ipse 
gallicis insigni re gestiret, cum sacerdos septua- 
genarius Bellonae sacris operaretur, cui generis 
humani luculento dispendio litare contendebat, 
turn cum profanum vulgus ad delubra pacis, et 
concordiee miserabili specie supplicationes inibat? 
Enimvero visendum spectaculum, patrem non mo- 
do sanctissimum, sed etiam senio et canicie 
spectabilem, quasi ad tumultum gallicum e Bello- 
nae fano suos evocatos cientem, non trebea, non 
augustis insignibus venerandum, non pontiflciis 
gestaminibus sacrosanctum, sed paludamento, et 
cultu barbarico conspicuum, sed furiali, ut ita di- 
cam, conrldentia succinctum, fulminibus illis brutis 
et inanibus luridum, eminente in truci vultu cultu- 
que spirituum atrocitate." — Budceas, deAsse,lib. 4. 
Merlin Coccaius, macaronic 3., has a long list of 
attributes to particular characters and professions, 
quaintly expressed in single hexameters. The fol- 
lowing are amongst the number : — 

Est Monachal, quando moritur, maledire parentes 
Ast est soldati numerosa per arma necari. 

M. de Thou gives the following account of the 
first voyage to Canada and Newfoundland : — 
" Anno prasteriti saeculi 34. et sequente Jacobus 
Cartesius Francisco I. Rege ad eas partes navigare 
institit, cujus et relationes extant." 



FROM MODERN AUTHORS. 449 

Budaeus, in the first book of his treatise De Asse, 
defines the place of what he called the Hypogeum, 
or the precisely calculated centre of the earth : — 
" Praedictis quatuor genethliaci etiam cardines qua- 
tuor addunt, ortum scilicet et occasum, et mesu- 
ranium quod et mesuranema dicitur (vocabulum 
ubique in Firmico depravatum) hoc est locus medii 
cceli, et huic oppositum locum quod hypogeon di- 
citur, hoc est punctum subterraneum inter ortum 
occasumque medium. " 

Ccelius Rhodiginus, chap. 4. of the twenty-third 
book of his Lectiones, thus brings together some of 
the leading philosophers as co-operating, by ap- 
parently different but really similar means, to the 
attainment of the one end : — " Quae sane ratio 
admiranda Zoroastri veterum theologorum principi, 
Arimaspem conciliavit, iEsculapium Mercurio, Or- 
pheo Musaeum, Pythagorae Aglaophemum, Platoni 
Dionem prius, mox et Xenocratem : qui omnes 
numine illustrante, opere uno, ad metam unam tan- 
quam eodem calle ad eundem itineris festinarunt 
terminum." 

The Corybantes, ministers of the goddess Cy- 
bele, were supposed to have slept with their eyes 
open, when they were set to watch Jupiter, for 
fear of his being swallowed by Saturn. A notable 
expedient ! We are told that their name is derived 
" utto rov xopvTTSiv, quod capita saltando jactarent, 
aut a pupillis oculorum, quae Graeci xopas vocant, 
quippe qui cum Jovis custodes essent, non modo 
excubare, sed etiam apertis oculis dormire cogeren- 
tur." — Ex Jos. Scalig. incastigat. ad Catull. From 
their eternal drumming also, a disease of the ears 
accompanied with continual ringing was called 
corybantism. 

G G 



450 



MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES FROM HOMER. 



"Eotj 8s jxoi [AtxXu 7ro\\oi } rot xuhXnrov ev$a$e eppwv 

"AXXov $ svQsvfa xgvcrbv xa) yoCXxbv sgvQgov, 

'H8s yvvcuxcts eutyvovs, ttoXiov re <rl$Y\gov 

"Ajfojxai, Sura-' eXu^ov ys. Iliad, lib. ix. 



X he French critics, in their remarks on Homer, 
are apt to refine too much ; as indeed they do in 
every thing they attempt. Monsieur de la Motte 
objects to the calculation of the time the voyage 
to Phthia would take, and the enumeration of the 
property he should find ^there, with the additional 
acquisitions of the war, as too minute and circum- 
stantial for the impassioned character of the speaker. 
But this surely is hyper criticism. It was perfectly 
natural, and equally consistent with his temper 
however impetuous or resentful, to impress it on 
the minds of the ambassadors, by arguing on the 
amplitude of his means and the facility of the 
voyage, that he would carry his threat of returning 
home into actual execution, and leave Agamemnon 
to the consequences of his own insolence and 
injustice* He sajs that his riches are already 



MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES FROM HOMER. 451 

sufficient to prevent him from entertaining a 
thought of accepting the offered presents. 

Ogilby's couplet, to express the first line of this 
passage in translation, is ludicrously ungramma- 
tical : — 

And, if great Neptune grant a prosperous gale, 
We the third day shall fertile Phthia sail. 



The following passage deserves to be pointed 
out, for the sake of a just and discriminate dis- 
tinction taken by Plutarch, between boasting and 
real courage, and illustrated by this very passage 
in point : — 

Toiovtoi §' eiWeg poi h=lxo<nv avTefio\Y\<ra.v, 
TI<xvre$ oiv avrdd' o\ovto, e^co vito §ovp) da^svTs^ 
'AAX« pe fxolg 6k0Y h xu\ Ayitqvs sxtuvsv ulog, 
'Avdgwv ff Rv^opfios' (rv Si f/,s Tplrog e^svugi^sig. 

Iliad, lib. xvi. 



The criticism occurs in Plutarch's discussion, 
Qua quis Ratione seipse sine Invidia laudet : — 

"£l<T7:zq ovv tov$ h Tw -kspittoltsIv e7rcupofj,evovg KOU V^CiV^SVOVyTXS 
uvorfTQVs riyoupsSa xcti xsvovs* «v §s vjvxtsvovt=$ r] [^a^Q^svoi 
$isyilgoo<ri xou civuyctywcnv euvtovc, s7ra.ivov[xsv ovtoo$ uvy)p u%q 
t6%yis <r<pa\\ofj(,=voc, sxvtov sl$ 6p$w xu^kttus kou uvtIttccKoV) 

U6xtyi$ 07roo$ si; xeiga;, 

ex. tov T<x7Tcivou xou olxTgou Trj y,sy aXciu^'i a. [A:latpegwv sl$ to yav- 
pov xod uv]/>]Aov, ovx £7rap£$>j£ ou$s Spcutvc, uKKoi fJ*sycc$ slvat 
loxsl xct) eoJ-^^jT0s , a>$ 7rov xcii tov UutpoxKov 6 %oi^TY^ ^stpiov 

G G 2 



452 MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES 

xu) ctVETrtipSovov ev tw xot.Tog$ovv } ev 8s too reXevTuv [AeyaXriyogav 
•G7S7To/>]X£ Xeyovrct, 

Toiovtoi 8' elireg pot eelxoo~iv uVTe£6\ri<rciV. 

It has been justly remarked, that the earliest 
specimen of every style is to be found in Homer. 
However his critics may differ in opinion on the 
subject, he thought it consistent with epic dignity 
to introduce passages of humour, involving his most 
respectable characters in ludicrous circumstances, 
when the course of incidents has temporarily de- 
graded them from their high station, given physic 
to their pomp, and exposed them to feel what 
wretches feel : <— 

Tov 8' ug V7rodgu l$wv 7rgocretpYi TroXv^Tig 'OSucrcrsuj* 
Aa*jU,oV, ovre rl o~e pefa xaxov, our ctyogevco, 
Outs tivoc (pQoveco do'ixsvcu, xet\ ttoXX* StveXovTct. 
Ou8os 8' a^origovg ode ^elo-erar ou8s rl ere %gy} 
^AXXorgloov tyQovssiv toxzeig 8s (xoi ehui aXYjTYis, 
"£lg 7rsg eywv oX$ov 8s Ssoj peXXovaiv bnuCpw. 
Xsocr* 8s [Ayjti Xii\v 7rgoxaXt%eo 9 (xyj [as ^oXwcrYjg 9 
M>j crs, yegcav meg eobv 9 <rnj$0£ xu) ^elXea. <p6go-o$ 
AH^oltos' Yi<rv)(lri 8* av eaol xoi) jaaAAov er e'lri 
Avgiov ou jxsv yag rl o~' U7T0(TTgs^jscrScti oi'oa 
Aeuregov eg [xeyocgav AaegTiufisoo 'O8uo-vjo£* 

Tov 8s ^oXc;o-«/asvoj 7rgocre<pooVEev y Igo$ aAyjTvjj- 
*X2 7T07T0J, chg 6 poXoSgog iwwgo^a&ijv otyogeuei, 
Tgyfi xu[j,wol l&og* ov av xc/lxo. i arjr{0"a//x>jv 3 
K.07rroov af/,<poTegYi<ri, ya\i*oi\ 8* ex mocvTug odovTag 
YvaQ[J,a>V-st;eXao~cu[j,i, o~vog wg XyiGoTelgYig. 
'Lcocai vvv, r {va nuvTsg e7nyvoo(jo<n xod o?8e 
.Mugva^evovg' 7ra>g $ av o~b vecoTegcp avdg) pa^ou) $ 



FROM HOMER. 453 

*£lc ol [jJev 7rg07rtzgoifa Svgavov u^/r t \aoov 
Ovfov S7n %s<ttov 7rav0ujaa5ov oxgioowTO. 
Totiv S= £uvs>^' Is gov \lsvoc, 'Avtivqoio, 

Odyss. lib. xviii. 

An English farmer would be surprised to hear 
that the modern practice of pounding cattle might 
be considered as a refinement on a very ancient 
custom, of barbarous severity, but a radical cure 
for trespassing. iElian thus describes it, De Nat. 
Animal, lib. v. cap. 45. : — 'Ev ^ahaipm 1= ^xwgov 

CtTOV XCi) KYjtoV X.0fJ,WVT0$ SUV <TV$ TTrCOUCTa U7T0KSlgY l} V0\t*0$ Ifi 

^.uXu^ivloov tov$ odovTug hxTglfisiv uuty^' xa\ touto slvui to ntug 

'Owgcjp, ^vo§ XriipoTslgw, <pu<riv. As ^Elian represents 
this as the law of Salamis, so Homer testifies to its 
use among the Ithacans : and we are farther in- 
formed, that it was a custom among the people of 
Cyprus. The inference therefore seems to be, that 
it was a general practice. 

The manner of the single combat is well exem- 
plified in this curious scene. The champions are 
represented as fighting naked, but decently girding 
the loins : — 

AvTug 'OSvo-crsug 
Zooo~uto jxsv puxscriv nsg) fxr^cci, foavs ds pYjgous 
Ku\ov$ rs, p,syu\ov$ ts, tpuvsv Si ol svgssg wjo-ot, 

~%TY$SU T=, Q-Tl^Ugoi Tc figU^'lOVcf UVTUg 'A5^V>J 

*Ay%i 7rugto-TUfj.svYi ^g'As' ?X8«V£ TTMfievi Kuwv. 
Mvr / <7Tr / £r£ S* ugu ituvTsc V7rsg$iu\co$ uyucruvTO' 
'OS* Is Tig ehretrxev Mobv eg ttXyjo'Iov uKXov 

'H Tuyu 'Igog uigoc l?r»WaoT0V xuxbv Ifer 
O^v Ik fuxswv b ysgcov «nyouv/8# Qctiveu 



454 MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES 

*ll$ ug tyotv *Iga) Se xaxwg wglvero $vpo$' 
'AAAa xu) w$ dgyo-TYigss uyov gaxroiVTs$ avayxy, 
AetiioTix.* vagxeg Ss li&giTg'ofAsoVTO (j,sks<rcnv. 
'Avrlvoos S* evevnrrev, eno; r e^ar , ex r ovopct^ev* 

Nuv fxh (Ayr E'iy}Cy fiovy&ie, pyre yevoio, 
EI 8>) tovtov ys Tgopesis xou dsihas u\voo$ y 
"Avdgct yegovTu, Soy a^vjjuivov, v\ pw Ixtxvet. 
'AAA' ex roi egeoo, to Ss xct) Terekeo-pevov eo-rat, 
Ai hsv <r ourog viXYjo-Yjy xgeio-voQV re yevYjTCti, 
Ile^co (r ' H7reip6vde } fictkobv ev vr\i fAekodvy, 
Eij ' E^erov /3acnAvja, figorvov £>jA>j|U,ova 7ra.VTcov, 
r/ 0$ x' a7ro p»va rufXYjO-i xu) ouutcl vqkei x&kxco, 
M)j$ea t e£e§v<ru$j loov\ xv<rlv dbpoi tiourourQeii* 

One might almost imagine that Homer was 
amusing himself here in parodying his own more 
serious duels. The brevity of the speeches, and 
the conciseness of the periods, pleasantly remind us 
of the style devoted to the anger of Achilles, and 
practically illustrate the principle, that every pas- 
sion betrays its appropriate nature in its language, 
whatever may be its circumstances, or whatever 
individual it may inform. Ulysses girds his own 
strong loins with his rags : Diomede, in the Iliad, 
performs the same office of the cincture to his 
friend Euryalus, before his combat with Epaeus. 

The Phoenicians were the great artists and na- 
vigators of the ancient world. It is supposed that 
they were expelled from their country by Joshua, 
that they settled on the sea-coasts, and colonised 
extensively in the three known quarters of the globe. 
The force of the epithet vuvo-lxkvTos is, famed for the 
number of his ships ; keeping up a large fleet. 

The following adventure is told with all the ele- 
gance of Ovid : — 



FROM HOMER. 455 

"Evta Se Qolvixsg vocucrlxkvTOi >)Ai/0ov avS^sg 
T^wjiTa/, [Aug? uyovreg aSugpoiTOi vy\i [asXxivyj. 
"Etrxs £s nargoc, i^xoTo yuvrj QoIvhtg- 3 sv) oixca, 
KaAvj ts \LzyoCkf\ re, xct) uyKaci egy e'&vioc 

Tr}V ft OipCi <t>OiVlXS$ TTOXWirOLlTrOLkOl Yj7rsg07TSV0V 

Uhwovo-Yj ri$ Trgc/JTU piyr), xol\y noigci vyi, 
Euvrj xcci (pjAoVyjTi' Ta tz <pgeva§ Y)7rcg07rs6ci 
GfiXvrsgYjcn yvvcti%), xou si x susgyog syj<tiv» 
ElgwTix §r) "ksitci, tI$ e?r], xci) noQev eXQoi' 
'H $s ju,«A' uvtIxcl 7rciTgb$ e7rs$gc$cv v4>egz$h Sw. 



456 



MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES FROM PLAUTUS. 



Plautus, in the last scene of the Trinummus, 
thus describes the connection between inward 
feeling and outward expression : — 

Si quid stulte fecit, ut ea missa faciat omnia. 

Quid quassas caput ? Ch. Conciatur cor mihi, et metuo. 

The practice of unction was adopted by the 
Greeks and Romans on a variety of occasions : at 
gymnastic exercises, after public or private bathing, 
medicinally, and at banquets and festivals as a 
luxury. This custom at the bath is mentioned 
in Paenulo : — 

Quid multa verba ? faciam, ubi tu laveris, 
Ubi ut balneator faciat unguentariam. 
Sed hsec latrocinantur quae ego dixi omnia. 

The literal meaning of latrocinantur is, those who 
serve in war for pay. 

I have already remarked on the Miser of Plautus 
at considerable length : but I cannot refrain from 
adding the following passage, in which Euclio 
suspects that even the cock had been suborned by 



MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES FROM PLAUTUS. 4,57 

the cooks to scratch for his pot of crowns, and 
executes summary justice on him accordingly : — 

Condigne etiam meus me intus gallus gallinaceus, 
Qui erat anui peculiaris, perdidit paenissume. 
Ubi erat haec defossa, occoepit ibi scalpurire ungulis 
Circumcirca: quid opus est verbis ? ita mihi pectus per- 

acuit : 
Capio fustem, obtrunco gallum, furem manifestariurn. 
Credo ego edepol illi mercedem gallo pollicitos coquos, 
Si id palam fecisset. exemi e manu manubrium. 
Quid opus est verbis ? facta est pugna in gallo gallinaceo, 
Sed Megadorus meus affinis eccum incedit a foro. 



H H 



458 



PASSAGE FROM TACITUS. 



When we are told lib. iii. Annal. that Agrip- 
pina, " postquam duobus cam liberis, feralem 
urnam tenens, egressa navi, defixit oculos," &c. it 
seems from the testimony of concurrent historians, 
that the two children of Germanicus were Cali- 
gula, who went with his father into the East ; and 
Julia, who was born in the Isle of Lesbos. 



459 



PASSAGE FROM QUINCTILIAN. 



The great Roman authority, on the subject of 
education, was nearly as general in his system as 
those of the moderns who object to our public 
schools and universities, as being too confined and 
exclusive. He evidently wishes young students to 
revolve round all the sciences : — " Hasc de Gram* 
matica, quam brevissime potui, non ut omnia di- 
cerem sectatus, quod infinitum erat ; sed ut maxime 
necessaria : nunc de cseteris artibus, quibus institu- 
endos prius, quam tradantur rhetori, pueros existi- 
mo, strictim subjungam, ut efficiatur orbis ille 
doctrinae, quam Graeci \yx.U\w vruifelctv vocant." — 
Quinct. lib. i. ch. 10* 



460 



PASSAGE FROM ARISTOPHANES. 



Aristophanes is the most artful of satirists. He 
slides almost imperceptibly from general sarcasm 
to personalities. Before he particularises Socrates 
and his disciples by name, he sets their doctrines 
in an invidious light, and describes what he repre- 
sents as their sophistry, to consist in injury to the 
state, by the evasion of the laws, and fraud on in- 
dividuals by bilking their creditors. 

<yV%WV (TOipoOV TOUT S(JTi <PgOVTKTTrjglQV. 

'EvruvS 1 evoixov<r uvdgsg, oi tov ougccvov 
AsyovTsg avflwre/Soucnv, ch§ eotiv 7rvtysu$ 9 
Ka<rnv 7rsg) Yj[J*oi$ oxjrog* r^ilc, $ oiv$ga.x.s$. 
Ovtoi 8i&a<rxou<r', agyvgiov rjv rt$ d&w, 
AeyovTot vixav x«i dlxccict xahxa.. 

The <pgovTi<TTV)§iov here mentioned is a school, or 
large establishment, of which many persons are in- 
mates, living on . a footing of common interests, 
without exclusive property, and for the purpose of 
cultivating literature and philosophy. We here 
see the germ of monastic institutions. 



THE END. 



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